Retention & buried cap hit
Juuso Valimaki cleared waivers today and if he is sent to the Roadrunners, Utah will still have 850k still counting against the cap... but hypothetically, what if he is traded with 50% retained and the new club keeps him in the AHL. Do the 2 teams split the 850k cap penalty? Is there no penalty for either team since each team's share is under 1.15m? Is just the new team on the hook for the cap penalty?
Answer
The buried cap hit is determined based on the cap hit for the player while he's with that team, and the retained cap hit is not impacted by the player being in the NHL or Minors. So in your example, if Valimaki ($2M) was traded with 50% retention, Utah would carry a $1M regardless of if he's in the NHL or AHL. The new team would have him at a $1M cap hit, so if he was in the minors, he would carry no cap hit since that is below the $1.15M burying threshold.
