[united]

The cost of retention on Kadri should be, and is, high. At 30% retained, Kadri would be the 3rd most costly retention of the cap era in terms of actual dollars at $6.6 million. At 25%, he would come in a 4th.

It is easy for us fans to be flippant about money as we usually think in terms of cap hit instead, but the reality is for a small market Flames team with poor attendance the actual dollars matter. Even more alarming for the Flames is this is the first season where they haven't sold out boxes in over a decade, and food and beverage is significantly down even in booked boxes. So when the top dogs see dark boxes, retention asks become more difficult to swallow especially when there is no incremental cap value to the retention like with Kadri at 1:1. Of course, this philosophy from a team being handed hundreds of millions of dollars of tax payer money, I digress.

Point being the Flames are willing to retain on Kadri, but they aren't going to exchange $4-6 million USD cash for a 3rd- to 7th-round pick just to get a deal done. Layer on the opportunity cost of tying up 3 seasons of a retention slot for potentially better returns in aggregate too and it creeps a bit more.

Now, there may come a time where they are forced to eat a #### sandwich. But we aren't there yet, thankfully.

...

The largest cash costs of retention to the trading team in the salary cap era with context of the moves:

Kevin Hayes, Flyers: $8.5 million
- The Flyers received a 6th-round pick
- Among the worst trades of the salary cap era but driven from a new GM in a position of desperation with a disgruntled player.

Ryan Johansen, Predators: $8.0 million
- The Predators received the rights to Alex Galchenyuk, who did not play another game in the NHL.
- The Predators were going to spend $10.7 million buying out Johansen's contract that summer anyway.

Ekman-Larsson, Coyotes: $6.0 million
- Alongside Ekman-Larsson, the Canucks received Conor Garland.
- The Coyotes received #9, #47, a 7th, Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, Loui Eriksson.
- This trade was complicated - hard to quantify value of the retention.

Erik Karlsson, Sharks: $5.0 million
- This was a three-way trade involving 9 players and 3 draft picks. Hard to quantify value of the retention.

Brent Burns, Sharks: $4.4 million
- Alongside Burns, the Hurricanes received Lane Pederson.
- The Sharks received a 3rd, Steven Lorentz, and Eetu Makiniemi.
- This was in isolation a poor deal for the Sharks, but Burns had a 3-team trade list...so limited in what they could do.