Lindgren is not a big fish! He's a pending UFA making $4.5M who is not playing that well given his cap hit. NYR probably don't want to outbid 31 other teams for his services, especially given the cap space needed for Shesterkin, and RFAs like Kaapo, Cuylle, and Jones that they may want to extend. So his time in NYR is likely coming to a close anyway. If they retain on his $4.5M cap hit they can likely get some decent value in return. That's a realistic move to get some cap flexibility. Trading Trouba and Kreider, during the season, is extremely difficult. Not just the NTC restrictions, but these guys are on multi-year deals so you likely don't want to retain salary for multiple years. Not many teams are able to take on that full cap hit mid-season. But I’m just a casual fan without sources…
