I don't think the CBA allows the Caps to reacquire Vanacek for an entire calendar year.

There isn’t anything that prevents the caps from reacquiring him. The only issue would be if salary was retained. The league would shut that down and call it cap circumvention. Blackwell has been rumored to be traded back to the rangers, as well.

Pretty sure that was the case for Vegas. Players can't be traded back to their original teams for a calendar year.

Considering there were multiple reports linking Blackwell back to the rangers, I have a hard time believing this is true unless you’re able to pull up something from the NHL rule book for transaction restrictions regarding the expansion draft. The only thing we had confirmed to not be okay is trading a player back to his team with salary retained, because that was the discussion with price.

Believe WASH would have interest in re-acquiring Vitek Vanecek if the Kraken so desired

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 28, 2021

What's the logic behind Seattle not being able to do whatever they want with the players they control the rights to and trying to get the best return for them? Aside from the argument of retention, which yes, can be construed as cap circumvention.

Seems like it should be perfectly legal for Seattle to flip Vanecek for picks, regardless of the team.