Sign-and-trade

A sign-and-trade is the move that lets a team turn a free agent it is about to lose into something instead of nothing. The team signs its own player, then trades him in the same breath, so he gets the bigger raises and extra year only his old team could offer and the team gets players or picks back.

There is a catch for the team receiving him: taking a player this way hard-caps it at the first apron for the season, and a team already over that line can't do it at all.