Unfortunately there is the collective bargaining agreement which prevents price from returning to the Habs for one calendar year. This sort of move would happen all the time if it were allowed.

I could be wrong but I believe Seattle's pick does not count as a trade technically. Am I wrong?

Nashville only cares about the recapture penalty if Weber is forced to retire instead of being allowed to be placed on LTIR. If Weber is forced to retire Nashville can't put him on LTIR anyway so the deal makes no sense from their POV.

LTIR over Retirement would be both in Nashville and weber's interest. So I believe 'formalities' would be observed in between the two. whiles, retirement over LTIR would be in montreal's interest but certainly not in Nashville's.

It doesn’t need to be a trade. Retainedcsalary transactions can not return to a team for one full calendar year.

Montreal is already asking for Weber to go on LTIR and the league is supposedly pushing back against it. So IF Montreal is denied LTIR for Weber then Nashville will also be denied. If Montreal is granted LTIR the trade makes no sense from either side as Momtreal is giving Nashville free cap space.

I believe that only applies to the team doing the retention.eg IF Montreal retains 2 mil on Price then sends him to Vegas, Vegas can't retain 2 Mil and send him to Montreal directly or Buffalo who the trades him back to Montreal for a calander year.

I thought as much.

See retains salary transaction section

It says "A team cannot reacquire a player whom they have retained salary from for a minimum of one year after the date of the transaction, or unless the player's contract expires or is terminated prior to the one-year date."

https://www.capfriendly.com/faq#retained

EDIT*** therefore as long as Montreal does not retain any money they can reacquire him without consequence.

FWIW, for those pondering the idea of Seattle selecting Price only to trade him back to Montréal, the Habs throwing picks/assets at Seattle for the Kraken to retain salary, etc: the NHL has informed both clubs that is a total no-go. League considers that a clear circumvention.

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) July 18, 2021

NHL will not allow any such sort of movement like you proposed, both clubs have been warned

No, it applies to any retained salary transaction for one calendar year. The wording in the cba is very generic but it’ll has already been backed by the nhl. That is why you never see these trades happen. Not even once.

Fair enough, guess they won't be doing that lol