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Report: Capitals put Schultz on waivers for purpose of buyout

Washington Capitals v New York Islanders

skates against the Washington Capitals at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on March 9, 2013 in Uniondale, New York. The Islanders defeated the Capitals 5-2.

Bruce Bennett

The Washington Capitals haven’t traded defenseman Jeff Schultz, like he has requested.

Instead, they put him on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a buyout, according to TSN hockey insider Bob McKenzie.

Schultz, 27, had one more year remaining on his four-year, $11 million contract. He’s also an annual cap hit of $2.75 million.

In May, Schultz publicly confirmed he had requested a trade from the Capitals, once they were knocked out of the playoffs in the opening round.

“My agent and I thought there has got to be somewhere else where a team needs a player like myself and I can be utilized a lot more than I was here,” Schultz told the Washington Post. “It was like I was a young first year player again with them.

“They didn’t have that trust in me that they could put me out there in tough situations or even in the third period.”

Schultz is a former first-round pick of the Capitals, back in 2004.

In 26 games during the lockout-shortened regular season, Schultz had three assists and was a minus-six. That’s a far cry from the plus-50 rating he achieved in 2009-10.

The Capitals had been working on trying to trade Schultz for almost a full month.

“He did ask for a trade,” Capitals general manager George McPhee told CSN Washington at the start of June.

“As we’ve told every player, if you ever want to be traded or you’re not happy then let us know and we’ll trade you. So we started working on it and we’ll see what develops.”