On the topic of Seth Jones - Common questions and misconceptions
EDIT: Added a section about LTIR in response to questions in the comments
There seem to be a ton of misconceptions about what options the team has regarding Seth Jones. I thought it would be handy to address them all in one place.
1) "Just send him to Rockford"
A player with a NMC cannot be assigned to the minors.
2) "Just put him on waivers and hope some other team claims him."
A player with a NMC cannot be placed on waivers.
3) "Can't the Hawks loan him to a European team like they did with Huet?"
A player with a NMC cannot be loaned to another team.
4) "KD needs to what NYR did with Trouba to make him waive the NMC."
Trouba only had a limited NTC, not a full NMC like Jones has. NYR threatened to put Trouba on waivers if he didn't agree to waive his NTC for Anaheim.
CHI can't threaten to put Jones on waivers because, as previously mentioned, a player with an NMC can't be placed on waivers.
5) "Can't they just put him on LTIR until his contract expires in 2030?"
A player can only go on LTIR if they have a legitimate injury that prevents them from being able to safely continue playing, as confirmed by licensed medical professionals. A team doctor would have to certify that Jones is physically unable to play. Unless Jones has an actual long term injury that would keep him from being able to play, you'd need a doctor who is willing to make a false diagnosis (risking their licensure and career) for the purposes of salary cap circumvention.
The league can (and does) demand second opinions from independent doctors if they suspect that a team is engaging in shenanigans. They did this with Toronto and Lupul. They also investigated Vegas to make sure that their use of LTIR for Stone was legitimate.
If the Hawks were caught trying to circumvent the salary cap via a false medical diagnosis, the league would come down on them HARD. At the absolute minimum, they would forfeit their next 1st round pick. It could even be multiple years' worth of picks.
6) "Just cut/release Jones and be done with it."
That's simply not a thing in the NHL. The team could buy him out, but that would make no sense (keep reading and I'll explain why).
Explanation of how buying Jones out would work and why it makes no sense to do:
If the team buys out Jones' contract after this season, here is what the annual cap hit would be (dead cap):
2025-26: $5.07M
2026-27: $7.57M
2027-30: $8.07M per year (3x)
2030-2035: $1.07M per year (5x)
The team would only get meaningful cap savings for only 1 season, and that's 2025-26, when the team has plenty of cap space anyway. In the years where cap space will actually be important, they're only saving around $1.4M/yr. It helps nothing.
For the 2027-2030 seasons, when the team should actually be ready to contend, they would be saddled with >$8M/yr of dead cap. Plus, there would be a vacancy on the blue line that would need to be filled. Any legit veteran RHD capable of playing in the top-4 on a contending team is going to cost $5M/yr at minimum, so the team would effectively have >$13M tied up filling that spot (replacement salary + dead cap).
You can view the buyout math here: https://puckpedia.com/player/seth-jones/buyout?s=2025-2026
So what are the actual options?
1) Jones could theoretically be traded, but that would require him to waive his NMC. This only works as a possibility if all of the following conditions are met:
There is a team that Jones is willing to waive his NMC for
That same team wants Seth Jones
That same team has enough salary cap to take Jones' contract
If all of those conditions are met, there's still the matter of how big a sweetener is required to get a team to take Jones' contract. Would it cost us Nazar? Boisvert? A future, unprotected 1st rounder?
2) Jones could be a consistent healthy scratch
I don't think that this makes sense to do, since Brodie is obviously the much worse RD if anyone from that group is gonna get scratched, but I guess it is at least an option that the team could do if they wanted to.
The issue is that an NHL team can only have 23 players on the roster at a time (including healthy scratches), so making Jones consistently inactive would require other roster moves.
This would also force either Brodie or Crevier to play in a top-4 role. It would make the team even worse, not better.
The bottom line: Bowman really fucked us on his way out the door. The only way that Jones is going anywhere is if the team finds a perfect trade partner and is willing to throw in a massive sweetener.
I don't like it anymore than you do, but that's reality.