Quoting: SJS2212
$9M a year in dead cap through 2026-27 and being devoid of all retention slots for future moves the next 2 seasons is likely a non-starter. Having to retain on Karlsson is fine. Retaining $3M on Couture is unnecessary with the cap increasing next year. Whoever would trade for him simply just needs to make it work this year with sending a short-term bad contract and then they're on their own for 2024-25 when the cap starts to bounce back.
There a are a few reasonable points here.
Regarding the retention slots, yeah it's not ideal but if retaining on Karlsson and Couture are the only ways to make them tradeable then I should think it is more important to use them here instead of doing what exactly? Siphoning out a 3rd rd pick in some TDL trade via 3rd party retention? Squeezing more value out of a potential Ferraro trade in the following season? Use the retention slots now, I think it's more optimal to do that given the circumstances. Burns's retention slot frees up in 2 years anyway.
GSVA seem to suggest that Couture doesn't hold value at 8m, but at 5m he holds a fair bit of value.
I think it would be very difficult to move Couture's contract for a worthwhile return without retaining, especially given his very restrictive NTC.
I settled on trading Couture to Colorado cus they have a clear need for a good 2C for the next 2-3 years, and Couture being more likely to waive (or not have the Avs on his no-trade list) for Colorado as they'll likely be contending with him in the lineup.
But I couldn't identify a bad contract on the Avs to take back, they seem to run a rather tight ship.
If you have a suggestion for some other trade partner that might make more sense and have a bad contract to send back then I'm all ears.
Quoting: glarson17
Nobody is having all their retention slots filled for years on end. Nobody is retaining all that money plus what they already have on the books. Yes they should trade them but take a smaller contract back in the process so they at least get a player
See above, think it speaks to your point.