Quote:
Originally Posted by Badgers Nose
The salary is pro rated for what’s already been paid to the player this season. I don’t think the retention is anywhere near $5 million.
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Yeah, let's say a player has an $8 million cap hit and is traded with 25% remaining in the final year of his contract and his compensation for that season was a $2 million signing bonus and $4 million in regular salary.
If he's traded with exactly 25% of the season remaining, he will still be owed $1 million for the remainder of the season because he would have already been paid the signing bonus and 75% of his salary. If the trading team retained 50% of his contract, they would be paying him half of the $1 million still owed and they would keep $4 million of his cap hit on the books for the rest of the season too.
Looking at the Flames trades this season (192 days long season):
- Tanev traded on day #142 (26.04% of season remaining): Flames retained $2.25 million in cap hit or $585,937.50 in cash.
- Hanifin traded on day #150 (21.875% of season remaining): Flames retained $2.475 million in cap hit or $541,406.25 in cash.
That's where Markstrom having 2 years remaining on his contract makes a huge difference. Markstrom is being paid $8 million (all salary) this season and $6 million ($2.5 signing bonus and $3.5 salary) for each of the next 2 seasons.
If he had been traded on February 16 (the day after the San Jose game when it seemed like the deal was closest to happening), it would have been day #130 (32.29% of the season remaining). If a deal had been made with 50% retention on that day, it would have meant the Flames paying $1.29 million in cash for the rest of the season plus $3 million in cash for each of the next two seasons. That's a total cash commitment of $7.29 million.
If you look at the Tanev and Hanifin trades and what New Jersey and Philly got for taking on 25% of those contracts: New Jersey got a 2026 4th rounder for taking 25% of Tanev's remaining contract (just under $300,000 cash) and the Flyers got a 2024 5th rounder for taking 25% of Hanifin's remaining contract (just over $270,000 cash).
If a little more than a quarter million in cash is worth a mid-round pick, what should $7.3 million in cash be worth?