I didn't see anything yet that this was related to contract termination? Why in the world would TDA willingly agree to walk away from $5 million?
The Flyers did have an arbitration filing, Noah Coates. They settled with Coates on July 10th. Per CBA rules:
The above was taken from capfriendly.com CBA section.
The 3rd day after the Coates settlement is July 13th. So right now the Flyers have a buyout window that will end tomorrow.
DeAngelo makes more than the minimum $4 million AAV to be eligible to be bought out.
So my guess here is that the Flyers are now planning to just buy DeAngelo out. That could be for all kinds of different reasons (Karlsson, Canes just no longer interested, etc.). I can't see any reason why TDA would just agree to terminate his contract. The FLYERs could try to terminate his contract for cause, if they have a cause to argue. They would need to waive him first (as they have done today). But that is not my guess as to what is happening here. I think they are considering buying TDA out and they need him to clear waivers first before they can do so. They are considering taking advantage of their 2nd buyout window, which ends tomorrow, triggered by the Noah Coates arbitration filing (and settlement).
----edit---- Or I could have just waited for Friedman to confirm that for us....