Don't be an idiot. The article is VERY clear that he has been offered a contract on significantly reduced pay, and he's knocked it back. Whether its still available or not right now is pointless - he's not accepting it anyway. The key point is that they wanted him to stay and did offer him a contract.
Hey idiot (now we're square

), of course it's relevant whether there's a contract on offer now.
It looks like what has happened is that he was offered a 1-year deal, but said "I want to stay but I'll see what else is on offer" (and who can blame him for that.
Then, Blake was chased by other teams who bid up his contract with Geelong. All of a sudden, we no longer have room in the cap for the contract that
was on offer to King a week prior.
Now King is pushed into retirement.
This is, of course, all only if the "source" is correct. I have my doubts.
But I think we're all on the same page when we say that the best case scenario would be to keep everyone. The sticking point may be, due to Blake's new contract, we no longer can.