The Montreal Canadiens placed defenceman Karl Alzner on unconditional waivers Tuesday for purposes of a buyout.

The 31-year-old has two years remaining on his contract which carried an annual salary cap hit of $4.625 million.

Due to a $1.5 million bonus paid to Alzner this summer, the Canadiens will only save $666,667 against the cap this upcoming season after the buyout. The largest cap relief will come in the 2021-22 season, where Montreal will save $2.67 million in cap space. The buyout will result in a cap charge of $833,333 in each of the following two seasons.

Alzner signed a five-year deal worth $23.125 million with the Canadiens on July 1, 2017. After spending his first two seasons with the Canadiens, Alzner has since been relegated to the Laval Rocket of the AHL. He has played 13 games with the Canadiens over the past two seasons where he has registered one assist.