I *THINK* that I remember reading where a players salary could only be retained twice. I assume it's to avoid stuff like this. Could always just send a bad contract back to try to offset some of the money, but yeah, I don't think this is allowed.

I apologize if I'm wrong.

I see what you are trying to do/say but I believe that only 50% of a player's contract can be retained in total. So, it would have to be just the 50% of Edmonton or maybe 25% from each, although I am not sure if that works either. Also, you may have actually overpaid to move up in the draft, in some people's opinion. To me, maybe a little but not by much. Last of all, I don't see Edmonton moving Klef just to dump Lucic.

If it's twice then this would be okay. $6 million originally. Edmonton retains 50% in trade to LA or $3 million. LA retains $1.5 million in trade to Flyers. Flyers have him for $1.5 million. Then he does the buyout and that's spread between each team. 50% Edmonton, 25% for LA and PHI.

The retention appears to be a possibility.

What is a retained salary transaction/trade

When a team trades a player, they have the option to retain a part of their salary (and cap hit). The team who retains the salary then pays the retained percentage of the salary, and also retains the percentage of the cap hit until the contract expires. The following requirements must be met to retain salary: 1.The percentage retained cannot exceed 50 percent of the player’s salary (including all bonuses) and Salary Cap Hit.
2.The same percentage must be retained for both the player’s salary and Salary Cap Hit, and cannot be modified.
3.All teams are limited to a maximum of 3 retained salary contracts per season.
4.Teams cannot retain an aggregate amount of more than 15 percent of the Salary Cap Upper Limit.
5.Players’ contracts are limited to 2 retained salary transactions per contract.
Once a retained salary transcation has occured, there are various limitations, such as: •A team cannot reacquire a player whom they have retained salary from for a minimum of one year after the date of the transaction, or unless the player's contract expires or is terminated prior to the one-year date.
•All teams involved in a retained salary transaction will have cap implications if the contract is bought out or terminated.
•Teams who retain salary on a players contract, will have the full value of the cap hit act against the teams salary cap total, regardless of whether the player is reassigned to the minors by their current team.

It is only retained twice (which is the maximum), once by the Oilers, and once by LA. I actually read the CBA section on it earlier just to check (because I'm super cool ). Something similar happened with Dubnyk back in 2014 though he was just sent to the minors rather than bought out.

That's probably true (not moving Klef) but it's such a huge albatross of a contract that they're going to have to get creative if they want it moved I think.

I don't know why, but when I read "3 way trade" and "Retaining 50 and then retaining 25", my brain went immediately to "Who's retaining the other 25%?!?!?!?!?!?!".

hahaha, my bad!

I also have perused small portions of the CBA. Lotta words...