I don’t see the value of retaining on an asset that would beget at best a mediocre draft pick.
If we don't have any offers that we take for the other players we could retain on, I'd rather use our last retention spot to move out Pearson than to be a 3rd team retaining to help another trade. If the returns are the same in both trades, I'd rather have Pearson off of the roster and give playing time to the youth.
But there are other players I'd rather move with retention ahead of Pearson:
1) Savard (potential high return, good for the tank)
2) Armia (better to have him off the roster this year and next, Pearson already comes off the books in the summer)
3) Anderson & Gallager (I'd retain to not have either of them on the roster for 3 more years. Give the spot to a young guy)
Then it's Pearson, then Allen. I see the vets clogging up the forward spot as more of a problem than Allen taking away Primeau's backup minutes because I'm not so high on Primeau. And hopefully Allen could be moved in the summer.