I don’t think you can get a team to sign a guy and immediately flip him with 50% retention. Nor do I think any teams would actually do that on a multi year deal even if they’re trying stockpile picks in the short term.

Yeah, I think that's clearly cap circumvention. It's one thing if it's a sign and trade on an RFA or something, but with 50% retention for multiple years is another

I definitely wouldn't be surprised if none of forsberg, PLD, and husso were caps, but if one of them were I would not at all be surprised. Also feel like the husso sign and trade you have would be vetoed by the league as cap circumvention -- think of when the caps traded orpik, he got bought out, and they immediately resigned him and the league changed the rules like a week later lol

Correct. What you *can* do, though, is have Team A sign the contract, trade to Team B, then Team B retains the salary and trades to Team C.

I’m not an expert in the CBA or nhl bylaws but that screams cap circumvention if done immediately versus being done in year 2 of the contract.