12 of the 20 starters are on entry level deals or almost league minimum and still only 1.3mil in cap space?

Some stuf that’s really off here. One for the millionth time hank doesn’t have a recapture fee. 2nd highly doubt he retires (but let’s says for this he does. 3. If we trade for Brodie is notttt what we’re looking for.. we’re looking for a top LD. 4. If we do get another LD the most they’d do with deangelo is a bridge deal which would be in the range of 3.5-4 mil because they have nils coming. 5.u didn’t even sign lemieux. 6. These lines are awful

Minnesota isn't moving 9 overall unless they get an actual top 6 center (not Strome).

All together now. If Hank retires, he has a Zero cap hit. No money retained.

So why did Vancouver get the Cap recapture penalty when Roberto Luongo retired? Was there a change in the recent (July 2020) CBA extension?
In the scenario of Hank retiring, Hank was paid an AAV of 9 million for 6 years (54 million) & NYR had a CAP HIT of 8.5 per year. (51 Million for 6 years) So if he retried NYR would obviously not be obligated to pay him the 5.5 on the last year of his deal, but NYR would need to make that number whole for surpassing his CAP # by 500 K per year. At least, those were the rules in the last CBA. I see a lot of people saying no recapture with a Hank retirement, but nothing that explains why.
Is there a vetted article or an amended CBA note, that im missing ?
Man i'd be pissed if i was Vancouver.

The Luongo contract was signed before the 2013 CBA, which created the recapture penalty to specifically target the Luongo, Weber etc contracts. The Henrik contract was signed after the 2103 CBA, when the contracts that would qualify for recapture were banned, before he turned 35. 0 Cap hit if he retires at any point in the deal.

Gotcha! When the deal was signed is the X factor, finally found this nugget: "It can only be triggered by contracts signed prior to 9/15/12"

https://slappersandstats.com/2016/02/09/the-cap-advantage-recapture-penalty-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters/

So in this retirement scenario NYR basically goes unpenalized for surpassing HL's CAP for all purposes , by 500 K per year, interesting.

I mean i dont think its "unpenalized" the NHL and the NHLPA negioated the new CBA to punish the pre 2013 back diving contracts that were excessive in their cap avoidance, but to create parameters for smaller scale version of the same thing. Its not like a loophole is being exploited, they specifically allowed the parameters of how aav is calculated vs salary per year to say what could be signed and what couldnt, and a few contracts since then have been rejected by the league for not having the salary breakdown meet the rules.