Quote:
Originally Posted by HighLifeMan
What the longest deal an NHL team has actually retained on? It simply isn't happening with Kadri or Huberdeau. That's just silly.
It's far to valuable to have those retention spots available each year in a cap world for a rebuilding team. Being able to retain money is almost a necessity at this point in order to facilitate trades. That flexibility is crucial and far more valuable than any retention would offer on a long term boat anchor.
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I'm sure there's a longer one out there, but Toronto retained like 12% of Kessel's cap for Pittsburgh, and they had him on the books for a very long time. By the time they were contending they were still having to pay money on Kessel's contract, who by then had been on 3 teams since that contract was signed (TOR/PIT/AZ).
I don't want Calgary trading Kadri or Huberdeau if it means we have to retain a double digit number on a number of years. Would rather take on contracts that are bad and expiring a lot sooner. If Colorado truly wants Kadri back in the fold, which I think would be a great idea for them considering Compher has left and Colton/Johansen have been pretty subpar as of late, then we take on either one of those guys and added cap on both sides to swap similar cap back to one another.
Retention should really only be used on the guys that are expiring this season.