$1.2 billion: that’s the amount that was promised to 185 NHL players yesterday, July 1, 2024. Apparently the salary cap has increased… and will increase again next season!
Sure, there were some good contracts, but it was mostly a festival of bad (and long) contracts. Tyler Toffoli and Sean Monahan each broke the bank away from Montreal… Steven Stamkos added $32 million to his personal prize pool… Joel Edmundson managed to make Rob Blake and Marc Bergevin forget that he had back problems… Brandon Montour won the jackpot away from Florida… Jonathan Marchessault preferred Nashville dollars to Montreal dollars… and Kent Hughes kept quiet.
His day of July 1 can be summed up as follows: signing of Alex Barré-Boulet, then contract extension for Juraj Slafkovsky. That’s it.
(Crédit: Derek Cain/Getty Images)
And that’s just fine: Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton stayed. focus on their plan and they did not succumb to temptation. So another GM will not have to deliver us from evil in a few years as Hughes is currently trying to do with the contracts of Price, Gallagher, Armia, Dvorak and Anderson…
And as he did with Patry, Edmundson, Toffoli, Hoffman, Weber and company!
Stay that the management of the Canadian has nevertheless proceeded to a move Important yesterday: Jonathan Kovacevic was traded to New Jersey (in return for a fourth-round pick).
Why do I dare to speak of move important? Simply because Kent Hughes created air (or space, if you prefer) on the blue line, allowing Lane Hutson, David Reinbacher and Logan Mailloux to have a real chance of breaking into the lineup in September October.
Trading Kovacevic – or another defender – had become necessary.
The Montreal defensive brigade therefore has this look-there this morning:
Matheson – Guhle
Harris/Hutson/Struble – Savard
Xhekaj – Mailloux/Reinbacher/Barron
Rappel : Harris and Barron are expected to be placed on waivers before being sent to the American League. All the other young people, no!
Draw it however you want, but there will be room for youngsters who impress management and the coaching staff in September. Kovacevic would have hindered the development of a young player if he had stayed in Montreal…
Note that only two defensemen are currently over 23 years old at the Canadiens; we have therefore turned the corner of the reconstruction on the blue line. We have an interesting (and sufficient) pool and we are starting the real competition internally. Cool !
And the dollars paid to Karl Alzner and Joel Edmundson are finally a thing of the past.
Kent Hughes’ next project will be the attack. The corner has clearly not yet been turned in front…
If we conclude that no veteran is blocking the development of a youngster on the blue line, that is clearly not the case on offense. In fact, there are two major problems still ahead:
1. Several players who will be in the lineup next season are not expected to be there; they take up a spot without being part of the solution (neither in the short term nor the long term): Josh Anderson, Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia and Christian Dvorak.
In addition, the four attackers count for nearly $18 million on the team’s payroll. They are therefore preventing other signings. How can you expect to get veterans up front when you already have four of them hanging around?
Dvorak and Armia are up in a year; that may be where we turn the corner on offense. There’s also Jake Evans, whose contract is also up next summer. Evans is worth nearly $2 million on the roster and will be 29 in July 2025.
Eat Michael Pezzetta!
Let’s not forget the salary caps of Jeff Petry and Jake Allen that will disappear from the books and that will give even more room to improve the offense!
2. The pool of hopes is not yet sufficient quality on the attack so that we can truly say that veterans must give way to younger players.
Joshua Roy is probably the only prospect who really needs to play in the NHL in 2024-25 to develop properly. Oliver Kapanen, Luke Tuch, Filip Mesar, Florian Xhekaj, Jared Davidson, Xavier Simoneau, Jacob Perreault, Sean Farrell and Riley Kidney need to play in the AHL.
Emil Heineman and Owen Beck are perhaps the only players who could surprise and start the season in the show…but a 2024-25 AHL season wouldn’t hurt them.
Next year – and the year after – there will be Ivan Demidov and Michael Hage, and then maybe the 2025 top pick in the discussion. And a striker acquired via trade, I hope…
But for now, there is clearly an imbalance between the attacking and the back yard. Up front, we have three big stars signed for the long term (Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovsky), three interesting young players (Dach, Newhook and Roy) and filling…while behind, we no longer have any filler. We have young people who must learn and two good veterans to accompany them in this.
The truth funit will be in the summer of 2025. And Kent Hughes knows it…
The DG of Habs mentioned a few weeks ago that the summer of 2024 was his biggest yet in Montreal, but that 2025 was going to be even bigger.
Haste to see what Kent Hughes will do with the contracts of Price, Anderson and Gallagher, who will be the only “problematic” ones next summer, as well as with David Savard, who could be traded to deadline, released next July or prolonged.
I tell you and I repeat it to you: the real fun, It will take place next summer, with many contracts that will disappear and the salary cap that will increase by another $5 million. For now, we have a half-reconstruction completed in front, but the bottom six do peak-peak :
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Newhook – Dach – Roy
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Pezzetta/Harvey-Pinard – Evans – Armia
Newhook and Roy will be relegated to the third line the day Ivan Demidov arrives in Montreal (in a year?) and when another quality forward is added to the group.
Prolongation
– According to David Ettedgui, the Canadian has recently been active in the Patrik Laine filewhile according to several insiders English-speaking players, it would be Rutger McGroarty who should be watched. It should be noted that the Canadiens have about $8 million under the salary cap, but they must come to an agreement with Arber Xhekaj, then add one or two forwards – who could come from Laval – to their roster.
Of course, Kent Hughes could put Carey Price’s name on the LTIR if he needs the extra cap space. And if the Canadiens ever do end up acquiring Laine, you can bet a good two bucks that either Dvorak or Armia will be leaving pretty much simultaneously. In short, Kent Hughes still has some cap space to maneuver if he wants to.
– It will be interesting to see if Samuel Montembeault, Cayden Primeau and Jakub Dobes will remain the organization’s top three goalies. There is Jacob Fowler, as well as a goalie acquired via trade or as a free agent, who could eventually come and change everything in front of the net.
– Juraj Slafkovsky, Kaiden Guhle, Jayden Struble, Adam Engstrom, Arber Xhekaj, Lane Hutson, David Reinbacher and Logan Mailloux could all collect some bonuses (real and accounting) in 2024-25. They must be anticipated.
