Christian Dvorak ($4.45M), Joel Armia ($3.4M), Jake Evans ($1.7M) and David Savard ($3.5M) may not be back with the Canadian next year.
I expect Savard and Evans to stay in town for the sake of the exercise… But in my eyes, the chances of seeing D-Vo and Armia return are slim.
If we add D-vo’s salary and that of Armia with the cap space current manager of the Canadiens (which will be the same next summer unless there is a transaction), Kent Hughes could have nearly $14 million free to maneuver this summer. Currently, the Canadian has a shortfall of $6,777,084 on his payroll.
But be careful: that’s not counting the increase in the NHL salary cap.
The league’s revenues are good at the moment, the NHL has canceled the escrow system until the end of the season… And that means we could see an increase almost 10 million dollars of the salary cap.
Basically, the Canadian had an advantage because there was still a lot of money coming out of his books. $14 million is enough to make a big splash on the free agent market…
But where it becomes more “complicated” is that the situation changes for the Canadian if all the other NHL clubs also benefit from an additional $10 million to maneuver this summer.
Marco D’Amico wrote an article on the Montreal Hockey Now website on the subject:
It’s interesting.
Even if the Canadian could benefit from the increase in the salary cap… It is a certain disadvantage at the same time because all the other clubs will be able to benefit from it as well.
For example, if the ceiling had only increased by a few million, the Canadian would have had a good life.
The CH could have freed up salary on its payroll with the contracts that did not return and it would have had more maneuver than the other big teams, because they – most of them – already have a large payroll.
-It’s a game changer if everyone can spend $10 million more!
Ultimately, this could change Kent Hughes’ plan.
The Canadiens’ GM will have to be creative if he wants to bring a big player to town since the other NHL teams will also have the money necessary to make a big splash on the free agent market.
It promises, at least. And it could be extremely exciting!
In burst
– Cayden Primeau will be in front of the Rocket net this evening.
– Everyone loves Marineland Ivan Demidov! ????
– Good question.
– Depth in attack for the Sharks.
– Go listen to this!
– Reminder: it’s #Belltalk day today.
