Quoting: cody_tugak
The problem I feel with salary retention is that sooner rather than later, there wouldn't be enough money for each team to pay their top performers the top dollar they should earn, looked at MacKinnon's contract and also Scheifele's too, they're work horses for either teams but they have no choice but to get lowballed by the teams they wish to play for, no one wants to be lowballed, MacKinnon should be paid what Rantanen's getting, Scheifele should be getting what Wheeler is getting, seems right... Right? Yes the teams aren't retaining anything or much so to speak, but it will happen, and when it does, teams will continue to lowball their top players
What does salary retention have to do with players getting lowball offers/contracts? You're gonna have to explain that one to me cause I'm not seeing the connection.
McKinnon and Scheifele should be making more but at the time of their signings those were fair values, if they thought they were worth more they should of signed bridge deals and proved they were worth more, neither of those guys were lowballed, the market changed after the McDavid deal, guys are wanting to get paid large coming off their ELC's.
If anything retention helps guys get paid, if retaining allows a GM to move a contract to free up cap space to pay an RFA then no one gets lowballed. There's already very few trades in the NHL, take away GM's option to retain and there'd be even less trades.