That is a TON of retention. At 5.25 his contract is pretty damn good, between his level of production and the amount of retention it would cost more

No reason for Calgary to do that.

What else are they going to do? Hang onto him and hope something changes to get him going again. Eating 5.25m for 8 seasons during a re-tool/rebuild for almost nothing in return seems way worse than just hoping the guy can turn it back around.

Obviously he would play better with a more offensively gifted team. Calgary isn't going to retain that long. They have retained once in their entire history

If they rebuild, one bad contract won't matter. People said the same thing about Seguin and Benn in Dallas, and the kids revived their careers.

Right, I think we are making the same point. The proposed retention would be terrible no matter what, but you definitely don't jettison contracts like this when entering a rebuild for a variety of reasons.

The "rebuild" in Calgary is going to be more of a retool, where they will trade expiring contracts, and that's it. Retaining half of Huberdeau's contract this early would handcuff Calgary, and with the Kadri contract as well, they'd have to move him and either take on a bad contract or retain on his deal as well. They're building a new arena and have some long term veteran contracts with some years left. It's just not happening

The best option for Calgary would be to trade the expiring contracts, and work on improving Huby's confidence, and find a player in trade or free agency that can play with him, and get him close to what he was in Florida.

If that fails the retention or buyout will happen in a couple seasons to reduce the amount of dead money on the books.

flames never do that

If Lou is still alive in 3yrs, Hubie is an Islander: book it!