NHL Salary Cap Questions > Re-acquiring Retained Player
Re-acquiring Retained Player
Asked Feb 10, 2022 by Tristan
Can a team reacquire a player they are retaining salary on then trade them away with no retained salary?
i.e. Leafs acquire Kessel (1.2M retained) then trade him away with no salary retained (freeing up 1.2M)?
Answer
Feb 9, 2022
A team can re-acquire a player they retained salary on after 1 year from the retained transaction. However, if they then subsequently trade him again, that original retained is still on the books. So in the example, if the Leafs traded for Kessel and then traded him again, that $1.2M retained cap hit still remains. Once a cap hit is retained, it can never be removed or altered, unless the player is subsequently bought out.
