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Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent
Couldn't they have cut cap somewhere else if the #1 goal was creating flexibility to recall more young players, and instead maximized the assets coming in return by retaining a little salary for 2/3 of a season?
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You can only retain salary on a maximum of three contracts. This leaves them the ability to retain on Lindholm, Tanev, and Hanifin, all of whom are much more valuable trade pieces than Zadorov. I'd rather maximize those assets. Using retention to turn a 2nd-round pick into a 1st, or a meh prospect into a good prospect, is better than using it to turn a 2026 3rd into a 2024 3rd. Conroy specifically said that all the bids were in the range of a 3rd-round pick; nobody was offering a 2nd.
The Zadorov trade is a unique situation because of the Perry termination. Chicago had $4 million burning a hole in their pocket and Vancouver pounced. Then Conroy pounced on Vancouver, and now that money is in the Flames' pocket. Scuttlebutt is that the Canucks might have spent the cap room on Ethan Bear if this trade hadn't happened, so it was a one-time opportunity.
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Still pretty meh about it, but feels like they took a discount on the return in a situation where they had lots of bidders all because they got tunnel vision around the shedding cap aspect.
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They absolutely needed to shed cap in the short term, and the only way to do that was to trade away a higher-priced player. Conroy mentioned that he hasn't even been able to call up any more players from the Wranglers because the team was so tight up against the cap. They no longer need a 21-man roster to make things work, so there is a lot more freedom to call up prospects from game to game.
If not Zadorov, who do you think Conroy should have traded to make that happen?
I expect the plan now is to call up several Wranglers at various points over the coming weeks, and see who plays well enough to take a regular roster spot. At that point, Conroy will know if he can trade the remaining UFAs strictly for futures, or if he needs to get roster players back (especially on D).