Just a quick question: does anyone know what it means to trade "future considerations"? Because they don't really turn into anything.

I don't think you can legally trade a player for nothing, so they trade "future considerations" which usually amount to basically nothing. Like if your trading for a guy and having the future considerations you trade be the option to swap 7th round draft picks in the following draft. Then their pick was better than yours the future consideration of swapping picks would end up being absolutely nothing for them. I think it would be a legal trade that way though, whereas you can't just trade a player for nothing. It's a whole technicality but future considerations aren't always the same thing, they differ from trade to trade. You really have to research each trade separately to know what it entailed. Future Considerations are the bare minimum you can offer, but they do differ and amount to different things. If your curious of a certain trade I'd try google to see if you could find anything in depth on what the Future Consideration was. I hope this helps.

OK, thanks.
I just don't know why they give someone up for pretty much nothing. I think it's to get rid of a contract.

Yeah, they just want to move on from the player. I think the NHL doesn't let a player be traded for nothing because they don't want anyone to get embarrassed. We all know the team trading future considerations is basically giving nothing, but it's a more polite way of doing it and I totally approve of the method. Just a way classier way of handling the situation.