Yes, the new CBA signed in August of 2011 left in place a provision that allows teams to designate two (2) pre-June 1 releases for post-June 1 Salary Cap treatment. However, for the team there really is no great advantage to using this designation because the player still fully counts against the team’s Salary Cap until after June 1, at which point the player’s Cap number is treated as a post-June 1 release.
This provision is really in place to allow players to be released earlier than June 1 and hit the free agent market before teams have spent all of their free agent money and while teams are still looking to sign veterans to fill out their rosters.
