Will start and finish with, that is way, way, way, way too much retention for Calgary to swallow.

In this trade there are no picks are sent to the Flames as the players coming from Calgary are either on a decline or in Hanifin's case only have this season prior to free agency. Calgary in the meanwhile receive recently graduated prospects Dylan Halloway and Philip Broberg which are key assets good enough for such trade. With Elias Lindholm for sure leaving as well, RNH comes in as an insurance to play center. For Edmonton, this is a trade to see if they can salvage their season while resurrect these declining players careers. Playing with McDavid and Draisitl will help for sure. Their window of winning the championship is not long, Edmonton must sacrifice trading their prospects to get the chance to win now.

Unfortunately they signed these players who are on a decline for too much money than they are worth. They were desperate then and put themselves in such terrible position. Now they are regretting all this having buyer's remorse. It is either they continue to be bad with no hope of immediate rebuild or they just accept the loss and move on. This is the best case instead of a more expensive buyout and dealing with disgruntled locker room. Weegar, Hubreadeau, Kadri and Markstrom are all on a decline. They are not the same players anymore. They have minimal value and you can even tell in fantasy hockey that these players are all being dumped in the waiver wire. It is not a guarantee that Edmonton wins this trade as they maybe tagged with continuing decline of these players. For Calgary the silver lining is Halloway and Broberg while being off with the mess that they are in.

No amount of silver lining will make retaining that much cap hit worthwhile.

The Flames, if they want, can easily rebuild, as I mentioned in an earlier response to a post, by using Huberdeau, Kadri and Weegar as the veterans in a long-term Sharks style rebuild.

There is just no way the Flames, or any team, will retain that kind of money on three very expensive players, all long term. Not for Broberg and Holloway, plus taking on the full cap hits of Nurse and Campbell, probably not for anything. Sorry friend, that is purely absurd! And you add in Hanifin!!

Nice try having Kadri and Kane together

And a horrible return too!