Why would they retain that much of Brouwers salary? He’d be less of a cap hit if the Flames just bought him out.

Retention only last the life of the contract (2 years). Buyout lasts for 4 years in this case ($1.5 per year). A bit of pain for 2 years is better than a bit of pain for 4 years. Can't see Treliving buying out Brouwer until after this season.

Honestly I think Ottawa is handcuffed in this situation. They could get a first, a prospect (valimaki or Dube) and a roster player(Bennett or frolik) max.
Because not a lot of teams can afford the 8mill he will get in arbitration.
So yeah just my thoughts

Yep Vanderm nailed it. Buying Brouwer out keeps him on our books too long. It also makes more sense for Ottawa as well because Brouwer at $2.25 is much easier to sell to your fans then $4.5M...

Valimaki, Bennett and a 1st would never happen... For a number of reasons.
1)Too big of a loss for Calgary.
2) The Flames wouldn’t be losing enough Cap in the trade to make room for Stone’s cap hit.
3) There would be no room for him. You can’t have Neal, Stone or Lindholm playing on the 3rd Line.

I see your point, but clearly Brad Treliving disagrees with you.

Personally, I would've preferred retaining $1-1.5M on Brouwer and adding a prospect of mid-late pick to save that $1.5M in Years 3 and 4. Have to think a team like NJ would've been willing to take a 3rd rounder to eat another $1M of Brouwer's contract, and then trade him on to CHI, VAN, STL, ARI....or someone at a $2.5M cap hit and get another 4th round pick (ie. get a 3rd and 4th to retain $1-1.5M for two years!).

Oh well. Hopefully the cap goes to $84M next year, and $88M the year after.