We are nearing the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline on March 7, which means there is about to be a ton of player movement. Three deals consummated on Saturday, all of which required retention on player contracts. Half of Ryan Lindgren and Gustav Nyquist’s salaries were retained by their clubs before being sent to Colorado and Minnesota, respectively. In the big deal of the day, the Blackhawks retained $2.5M on the remaining six years of Seth Jones’ deal.
The theme of the last few deadlines has been salary retention. Teams have had to get creative with the cap staying rather stagnant over the last number of seasons. We saw a third-party deal when the Hurricanes acquired Mikko Rantanen last month. The Flames used third-party brokers last year in both the Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin deals.
Those teams garnered mid-round picks (a fourth and a fifth) from the acquiring team for eating an additional 25% on top of the 50% retained by the Flames. That meant that the acquiring teams got Tanev and Hanifin at 75% retained. With so many teams close to the cap, this is likely an avenue we see play out again. Enter the Calgary Flames.
The Flames are ready to be a third-party broker at the deadline
A source tells The Win Column that the Calgary Flames have notified teams around the league that they are available to be a third party broker if an acquiring team needs retention. In those conversations, they’ve also let teams know that they haven’t ruled out retention for multiple years, depending on the compensation for doing so, of course.
The Flames have a plethora of cap space, with only the Columbus Blue Jackets having more at the moment. The Flames have been accruing more than $16M since the season began, which means they will have more than $84M in deadline cap space come March 7.
The team has two retention spots available for use. One of their retention slots is being used to retain $1.875M on Jacob Markstrom this year and next. The team is likely to stand pat and not use the remaining two slots on their own players. So, they are ready and available for third-party retention. Like the Hanifin and Tanev deals, being a third-party broker for a pending UFA likely nets you a mid-round pick. It’s not a high-end asset, but adding more picks to the arsenal only increases your chances of hitting on future NHLers.
Flames can use their cap space for the future
Being a third-party broker isn’t the only way the Flames are ready to use their cap space. They are prepared to take on unappetizing contracts from teams in exchange for compensation. While this is usually an avenue that occurs in the offseason, it’s not out of the question. This could be an interesting way to supplement their group and receive an asset for doing so.
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