Salary in salary out... any deal Nashville makes with any buyer is going to involve a contract coming back.

Not necessarily. Nothing forces them to add in contracts. If they need cap space they might have to pull a Kekäläinen and move some of their contracts for low picks...like he did with Murray for instance.

Only way a contract doesnt go back to Nashville is the buyer has a separate deal in place to move dollars out. If thats the case then the price tag just went down quite a bit. But if its the right deal and the right prospects Nashille (or any seller) is getting then theyll take a contract for various reasons... they need to fill roster spots with NHL capable guys, they need to hit the cap basement, they still want to appear to be competetive. And right now if Nashville is in full sell mode and ready to trade Forsberg, Ekholm, Granlund, etc those guys carry a big cap hits.. so obviously definately theyll be taking back contracts to be over that basement

Well Forsberg isn't going. In the current situation I can't see them getting the return they'd be after.

As for Ekholm or Granlund, no one forces them to deal these players to teams who can't afford. For instance, WPG or BOS could afford taking Ekholm's full contract right away without moving a contract back. Granny half-retained is also quite cheap...can think of 15 teams who could take this contract in.

Main point - preds don't need to worry about taking contracts in if they don't want to. Then again, if the contract is useful, then sure why not take one in...