Ottawa Senators

Ottawa Senators Waive Colin White, Plan to Buy Out His Contract

How far of a fall did Colin White make? Once a Top-10 rookie, yesterday the Ottawa Senators waived him. Will White land anywhere?

by
Old Prof
July 6, 2022

How things have changed in three years. On August 21, 2019, Colin White signed a six-year contract with the Ottawa Senators with an average annual value of $4.75 million. At the time, Senators’ general manager Pierre Dorion was exuberant about the signing.

The Ottawa Senators have placed forward Colin White on unconditional waivers for purposes of a buyout: https://t.co/SC63uMFyn9 #TSNHockey pic.twitter.com/J7M0Siyiez
— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) July 5, 2022

Dorion noted that “We’ve identified Colin as one of our core young players who will help drive our team’s success in both the short and long term. Colin plays the 200-foot game that is so coveted in today’s NHL. He can skate, play on both special teams and is a character player and leader who loves hockey and this city.”

White Was Projected to Become the Senators’ First-Line Center

Dorion added, “While he is coming off a season where he finished among rookie leaders in many categories, we also know he is just scratching the surface of his potential in this league. We’re very happy that Colin will be a Senator for the next six years.”

In the 2019-20 #NHL season opener in Toronto, Colin White was the Ottawa Senators’ No. 1 centre. This year, it appears he’s going to be a healthy scratch for the revamped team.

@tsn_wally on how White is approaching it this season: https://t.co/3hKWqVWkAA #TSNHockey pic.twitter.com/zCO7MBNunl
— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) January 14, 2021

Three years ago, White was coming off a season where he’d scored 14 goals and added 27 assists (for 41 points) in 71 games. He was among the top 10 NHL rookies in goals, points, and assists during that season. In fact, he was projected to become the Senators’ first-line center heading into the 2019-20 campaign.

Yesterday the Senators Put White on Unconditional Waivers

Yesterday, the news was different. The Senators intend to buy out the remainder of White’s contract if he clears. He played in just three seasons of his six-year, $28.5 million contract. Although he had 41 points in his rookie campaign, he followed that up with just 20 goals and 51 points in 130 contests over his next three seasons.

#Sens have placed Colin White on unconditional waivers for purposes of a buyout. They will save $10.5 million in real cash because White is only 25.

Cap charge is less than $900,000 for five of next six years with one season as a cap credit, per @CapFriendly.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) July 5, 2022

Because of his age, the Senators will save a ton of cap space with this buyout. Without the buy out, the team would have had to pay White’s $4.75 million salary-cap hit over each of the next three seasons. With the buy-out, the Senators are only on the hook for $875,000 of what would have been White’s salary.

That’s true over five of the next six seasons. During the 2024-25 season, the Senators will actually receive a $625,000 salary-cap credit.

Update: Colin White has cleared waivers, as per Elliotte Friedman. It has not been reported yet if the Senators intend to buy out his contract.