Lou Lamoriello Saves the Oilers?

So apparently Lou Lamoriello may have just helped the Oilers find a loop-hole in case Nikolai Khabibulin is more Maginot Line (origin: Quain and Benjamin Massey) than Bulin Wall in two or three years time. The contract of Brendan Shanahan has now been terminated. When asked for his opinion, this is what old Lou had to say:

"It's within the rules. That's all I'll say."

Transparent as usual! I'm going to guess that Shanahan's 1 million dollar salary is not going to count against the cap although the article does not explicitly state this. So what does it mean to terminate a player? Here are the relevant sections of the CBA:

Article 13.21a: "When a Club desires to terminate a Player's SPC for any reason, such action may not be taken until Unconditional Waivers have been requested and cleared in conformity with this Article."

Article 1 - Definitions: "'Unconditional Waivers' means the process by which the rights to a Player are offered to all other Clubs, without a right of recall at a Waiver price of onehundred and twenty-five dollars ($125) prior to a Club exercising its right to terminate a Player's SPC pursuant to Article 13 of this Agreement and Paragraph 13(a) of the SPC."

Now, normally the CBA talks about a player being terminated and bought out but this isn't the case here. Right now capgeek.com is listing Shanahan as a non-roster player and not as a player who was bought out which means his salary does not count against the cap. It's as though he were on long-term injured reserve. This is what the CBA has to say about non-roster players:

Article 16.12: "Upon approval of the Commissioner, a Player who is unavailable to play due to reasons other than injury, illness or disability (e.g., birth of a child, attending a funeral) will be designated a Non-Roster Player, and during such period of his designation as such he will not count against the Club's Active Roster limit and his Club may replace such Player, provided, however, that the Non-Roster Player's Player Salary and Bonuses and his replacement's Player Salary and Bonuses are each included in calculating a Club's Actual Club Salary and Averaged Club Salary, and the Players' Share, for purposes of Article 50"

So why on earth would Shanahan be considered a non-roster player? I have no idea. My guess is that he was terminated under section 14 of Exhibit 1 and that this somehow qualifies him as non-roster. I'll quote that section of the CBA here:

"The Club may also terminate this SPC upon written notice to the Player (but only after obtaining Waivers from all other Clubs) if the Player shall at anytime:
(a) fail, refuse, or neglect to obey the Club's rules governing training and conduct of Players, if such failure, refusal or neglect should constitute a material breach of this SPC.
(b) fail, refuse or neglect to render his services hereunder or in any other manner materially breach this SPC.
In the event of termination under subsection (a) or (b) the Player shall only be entitled to compensation due to him to the earlier of the date such notice is delivered to him or the date of the mailing of such notice to his address as set out below his signature hereto."

I'm not sure if this is the real reason or not but I do think it is going to be very necessary for teams like the Oilers who have significant money tied into players who are over 35 to find out. How has Lamoriello made this deal?