I believe the Isles would have to pay the chunk of the salary as well though. In the instance with Thomas they are trading only cap dollars, no money is being paid to Thomas while he's not playing.
Because of the recent freak outs regarding Vanek's ice time. Sounds like his poorly worded way of trying to say "I'm giving him as much as he can handle."
My guess is that outside UFA help wasn't likely anyway, the likely scenario was Hecht centers the third line and McCormick the 4th line when he returns.