I'm not sure what's cold-blooded about any of this.

You can't backload retention. You pick a percent, and that percent is retained over the remainder of the contract.

Walker doesn't have negative value. He's worth a 2nd or 3rd round pick.

I would say Kings decline, but who knows anymore.

There's just no way without NSH eating 2-2.5m on retention, not unless they trade Doughty.
Doing this works right up until Kopitar's new contract is in and LAK arent letting him walk just as they begin contending again.

All their youth playing now in the NHL will be off their ELC's on new deals
With Gavrikov there Mcdonugh seem redundant when they got a younger LD more productive who's a pending UFA they can sign on their terms without 4 years of baggage they took on for free while giving up their top young defensman and walker for the privelege of taking a loss from NSH.

Mcdonugh was gifted to NSH for basically nothing after 3/5 season in the SCF as a top 4 D TBL moved him at a loss because not a single GM was willing to touch that term with RS.
Why does NSH get a break when the fact is if it was possible TBL woulda done it already ?


I mean Walker alone can be moved easily enough for someone who plays similar to what Mcdonugh is in his final few years of hockey as his decline becomes quite clear.
I mean if you want a beat up old guy who times relegated to the role of a #5/6 Defensive Defensman /shotblocking role we'll trade you Eddy strait up 1 for 1 with Walker.
You get depth behind Gavrikov and lose nothing , We could even swap Grans for Trudeau to give you call up depth on Left side

It'd be way cheaper and Trudeau's got better odds of hitting 20 pts at over 20 minutes a game long before Mcdonugh will again , its why TBL sacrificed him so easily while Myers is buried in the AHL its still cheaper them RM would have been for the Lightning.