Something to consider with all of these projected trades is the potential for retention. Does anyone know how many trade the Flames have retained salary on? ONE. When they traded Rittich to the Leafs they retained $1.35M in cap hit, which is around $400K in real money. That's it. If retention is used, and that is a big if at this point, they are going to use it with minimal impact in real money. I find it very hard to believe they would retain on Markstrom as he has multiple years left on his contract and Edwards would not be happy paying a guy to play for an other team. It just isn't who he is. If retention is used it will be on expiring contracts where the real money is minimal and helps get a player under the other team's cap for the remainder of this season. That will be it. That is consistent with the business practices of the club and until they retain significant amount in any deal, even that seems unlikely. Retention is a great thing to think about, but to date, this team has not been willing to use the mechanism. I expect they will take back equal contracts rather than flat out retain. It's what they have done in the past and is their expected behavior.
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