Jackets won't be retaining if they trade Elvis

Nah, Jackets take this. We retain half of what his buyout cost per season would be and we don’t have him on the books for 6 yrs only 3. This is a good deal for the Jackets.

Jackets wouldn't buy him out. He's a clear starting goalie and if on a better coached jackets team he'll have a great season again. Then, if they want pick tarasov over him still they trade him at a premium value

No, he’s getting bought out. We need this year to get Tarasov and Greaves ample experience. Elvis is a liability and occupies too much cap space. He also has lost respect in the locker room. Down the stretch, the team clearly played better with Tarasov. We are better to buy him out and either use that space to improve the team or take a bad contract to get picks or prospect.

I think Jacket's retaining 1.9M per actually saves them a small amount of real money. Avoids the extra 3 years and on the third year actually saves cap from a buyout. Costs more cap the first two though, obviously the first with Husso on the books.

The reports have been that he won't be a Blue Jacket next year due to off-ice issues, as I'm sure you know. There's more to this than the on-ice performance. As such, a trade with retention probably the best to hope for.

@Swedish_Mafia, Columbus accept without much hesitation.

And 24-25 doesn't matter. They have lots of cap space and no expectations of playoffs. In 25-26 the cap hit with $1.9M retention is $275,000 higher than a buyout. The rest of the way it's lower. A retained Merzlikins for Husso deal makes sense. I think the sweet spot is where it's a straight up trade.

Exactly my thoughts.

The sweet spot may end up being higher than 750K to get to an even swap. But that’s where it at least starts being interesting from the Wings side where they can clear space for this year while potentially upgrading in goal.

Personally, I think it would be somewhere around $1.5–2.0M, due to Merzlikins' term.

This is largely wishful thinking, particularly since he's becoming divisive in the room.

1.5 mil would be the max I would retain on him. But if we take Husso back I just can’t see us retaining more than 1mil.

I’d love to get 1.5 and would probably throw in a late round pick to make it happen. So 1 mil sounds like the range to do it one for one.