For all the people complaining about the retention, you do realize Phaneuf has a cap hit of 7M and Edler of 5M? So basically all this retention does is make it that the Sens pay Edler 7M instead of Phaneuf 7M. They aren't taking on any additional salary and are getting the better player, who is 1 year younger, and is signed to a more friendly contract in terms of length to age. So why wouldn't they retain exactly?
Really because of 2 seasons where they retain 2M that Edler isn't signed for? Phaneuf would be 34 and 35 those seasons. How is that not a benefit to the Sens to avoid paying Phaneuf 7M per for those years and only get away with a 2M penalty? I'm sure you could easily re-sign Edler for the same 5M or less by that time. He would be in the tail end of his career too at 33 and 34 years of age at that point. D-men past 33 do not sign for more than 5M unless they are the elite of the elite.
I swear people on these boards just see retention and get bent out of shape without thinking things through. They just see dead cap space. When GM's have to buyout players for even more than that for longer term to get rid of a player past his prime making way too much money, they think they could have dealt him before that point and avoided the buyout.
