Nashville with Weber recapture penalty next year

Honestly I can't see the NHL enforcing the recapture penalty, I'm sure he'll just be put on LTIR for the remainder of his contract.

He won't retire.

They didn't stop Luongo's.... them stopping it now wouldn't be fair to Vancouver who had to deal with it. The NHL modified the recapture last year to amend the crazy 24M cap hit thing and could have fixed it then and there but didn't. I think they did precisely what they did because last year Weber had rumors of season ending injury and who knows what after. They covered their tracks for Nashville last year. Anything else after that NSH will most likely have to deal with on its own. Its not crippling, Just sucks for them. The 24M thing literally would destroy them.

The recapture is only if he retires, which I don't think he would because he knows it will affect both NSH and MTL cap situation. Unlike the Luongo saga, Weber has a multitude of injuries that can keep him on LTIR.

This is the grey area. Apparently both the team and the player have to decide a player goes on LTIR. Weber owes nothing to NSH who traded him remember. Mtl gets small cap recapture but benefits from not having to put Weber on LTIR which is not easy for them to do. (It forces them still to have to spend right up to the cap every year). Also if Weber wants the money he is still owed, Habs could simply offer him a front office job to make him whole again.

So there really is no incentive here for MTL or Weber to LTIR this (assuming Weber indeed doesn't want to play again.) The only incentive for Nashville for Weber to retire now is the recapture would be less expensive but for an extra year. If they feel obliged to acquire Weber's rights in order to ask him to not retire and go on permanent LTIR, they can benefit from the this but would indeed have to pay MTL for this. Probably not as much as some Habs fans are hoping for but it might be a high draft pick like a 2nd rounder or possibly even improving MTL's draft position in the 1st. etc. It has to be something alittle valuable to "pay them off" but not too good as to hold Poile hostage/blackmail them and burn bridges either.