After retiring over the summer after 19 NHL seasons including 11 years with the Florida Panthers and eight years with the Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongorejoined the club as a special advisor to general manager Dale Tallon this month. And for Vancouver general manager Jim Benning, the situation is le s than ideal.Luongo's retirement last summer Brian Anderson Jersey meant the Canucks areon the hook for over $3 million in annual salary-cap recapture penalties over the next three years. Meanwhile, Luongo's back to drawing paychecks from the Panthers. I wanted to voice our displeasure with the whole thing, . MORE: Hisconcern isLuongo is recouping money he left on the table by retiring in June. Benning said the Panthers are allowed to hire Luongo as long as it's a market-level position at an entry-level salary comparable to a similar position in the league. I don't know what he's getting paid, Benning . it's nowhere close to Luongo's former salary, gue singit's around $200,000. Benning also acknowledged there Martin Prado Jersey 's little his club can do under the salary-cap recapture rules in the current collective bargaining agreement; he and his club are paying the price for his predece sor, employing a form of salary-cap circumvention allowable under the former CBA when Luongo signed his 12-year contract a decade ago. Back then, several teams signed a handful of players to exceedingly long, heavily front-loaded contracts as a mean of garnering a more favorable annual salary-cap hit. The league shut down that loophole under the present CBA, limiting contracts to eight years for re-signings andseven for unrestricted free agents, as well as placing limits on how much contracts can be front-loaded. The salary-cap recapture penalty was also implemented, whichgoes into effect when a player carrying one of those lengthy contracts retires. It affects the club that signed him to the deal, as well as any club that acquires him via trade or waivers. In Luongo's case, Vancouvergot tagged the hardest because the team signed him to that long-term contract. The Panthers are also penalized, though they pay a moreaffordable $1.09 million annually. Currently, 13 players carry those lengthy, front-loaded contracts, as per . PLAYER TEAM YEARS SIGNED EXPIRES AAV (million) Shea Weber MTL* 14 2026 $7. Blank Jersey 857 Duncan Keith CHI 13 2023 $5.538 Alex Ovechkin WSH 13 2021 $9.538 Zach Parise/Ryan Suter MIN 13 (each) 2025 $7.538 (apiece) Marian Ho sa ARI^ 12 2021 $5.275 Sidney Crosby PIT 12 2025 $8.7 Henrik Zetterberg DET 12 2021 $6.083 Jeff Carter LAK" 11 2022 $5.272 Johan Franzen DET 11 2020 $3.954 Jonathan Quick LAK 10 2023 $5.8 Nicklas Backstrom WSH 10 2020 $6.7 Jordan Staal CAR 10 2023 $6 *Contract originally signed with Nashville; ^Contract originally signed with Chicago;"Contract originally signed with Philadelphia Three of them Ho sa, Zetterbergand Franzen are all but retired due to injuries or chronic ailments, leading theirrespective teams to place them on long-term injury reserve. That provides those clubs with salary-cap relief if needed while a suring they won't be tagged with recapture penalties. Backstrom's contract expires next July and Ovechkin's in 2021 so the Capitals have no fear of cap recapture there. That leaves eight Weber, Keith, Parise, Suter, Crosby, Carter, Quick and Staal with the potential to create cap- Caleb Smith Jersey recapture headaches down the road.Most could play out the remaining term of their respective deals. Injuries could force some with long injury histories, such as Parise and Quick, onto the permanent LTIR. The one to watch is Weber. Nashvillematched a hefty offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers in 2012 before the last NHL lockout and the current CBA. In 2016, they traded Weber to the Canadiens for P.K. Subban. Both clubs could see cap recapture penalties but the Predators will bear the heaviest burden. MORE: of the potential recapture penalties facing the Predators. Their portion, if he retires next year or in 2021 would be over $4 million annually, or over $6 million per season if he pulls the chute in 2022. Those numbers are bad enough, but it's the penalties in the final three seasons that's concerning. If Weber retires in 2023, the Predators will be tagged Wei-Yin Chen Jersey with over $8.1 million in annual recapture penalties. If he goes in 2024, it jumps to over $12 million annually. Should he retire before the final season of his contract, the Preds get walloped with over $24 million. LeBrun reports the league has no intention of doing away with the cap recapture penalty. However, he said there have been discu sions about amending the formula under the next CBA to soften those penalties by spreading them out over a longer period. In the meantime, Predators fans as well as the organization should hope that the Habs captaindoesn't retire before his contract expires.