When Nashville Predators defenseman Tyson Barrie didn’t show up for practice on Thursday morning after being scratched the night before against the Carolina Hurricanes, it opened the door for plenty of speculation about whether a seemingly inevitable trade was finally coming.
However, the Predators later announced that Barrie was day-to-day with an “upper-body injury.” But the timing did seem a bit precarious. If the Predators were to trade Barrie in the not-too-distant future, what would his contract situation look like and how could the team make a deal work?
If a trade went down today, there would be a salary cap hit to the acquiring team in the amount of $2,601,563 if the Predators retained none of his salary. Because Barrie’s yearly cap hit is $4.5 million, his salary for the remainder of the season is pro-rated based on the total number of days in the season (192, October 10-April 18) and the number of days that have already passed (today is day 81).
Working with the $2.6M+ cap hit, the concept of cap retention also comes into play, which is covered in Article 50.5(e)(iii)(C) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. For Barrie’s contract and the Predators current salary cap situation more broadly, two specific provisions are relevant when trying to find a logical trade partner.
First, Nashville can only retain a maximum of 50% of Barrie’s salary (a little north of $1.3 M). Second, Barrie would be Nashville’s third salary retention (Ryan Johansen $4M, Mattias Ekholm at $250K — both carried through the 2024-25 season), meaning the Predators could not retain any salary in any future trades until the end of the year (Barrie will be a UFA this summer).
One additional caveat to take into consideration is any team using long-term injured reserve (LTIR) this season would have to have enough salary cap space to absorb all of Barrie’s contract value ($4.5m) as opposed to the pro-rated value.
For example, if the Predators were to retain 50% of Barrie’s salary, a team using LTIR would have to have enough cap space following the transaction to absorb $2.25M (half of his $4.5M cap hit), whereas a team not using LTIR would only absorb a little over $1.3M.
Nashville Hockey Now has previously discussed possible trade destinations for Barrie, which include the Edmonton Oilers, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, and Toronto Maple Leafs. Of those teams, all but the Devils have a player on LTIR this season.
Personally, the Vancouver Canucks seem like the best landing spot for Tyson Barrie, a Victoria, British Columbia native.
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