The Montreal Canadiens currently have more than $7 million available in salary cap space according to CapFriendly, and they should not spend another dime on free agents.
According to CapFriendly, the Montreal Canadiens have $7,812,025 in cap space and using that to sign another free agent would be a mistake. Of the unrestricted free agents remaining, Rick Nash is the only player who has any type of pedigree and to be honest, isn’t anything more than a nice name at this point in his career.
Watching Nash play with the Boston Bruins in the playoffs and the final 20 or so games in the regular season, it was evident that he wasn’t able to keep up like he used to. The Brampton native has also reportedly flirted with retirement much like his countryman Jarome Iginla did earlier last week. The Canadiens aren’t in any position to give a 34-year-old a contract worth any significant dollar value as it’s no secret that Montreal will likely miss the playoffs again.
With that being said, having upwards of $7 million in cap space could net the Montreal Canadiens some very valuable assets. Teams in the NHL seem to have an affinity with leveraging cap space to acquire new talent. Arizona seems to pick up two or three bad contracts a year acquiring picks and or prospects in the process.
The 2016 Entry Draft is the one that comes to mind for me. Arizona received Pavel Datsyuk and the 16th overall pick (who ended up being Jacob Chychrun) for a 20th and 53rd overall selection. If the Montreal Canadiens could find an awful contract (Bobby Ryan?) and identify good prospects within the organization (Logan Brown?) and leverage the cap space to acquire said player, it could be a worthwhile deal.
Now I’m just spitballing with the players named above as the Ryan contract is arguably worse than bad ($7.25 million for four more years). But the Senators are a perfect example of a bad contract that could lead to a high-end asset.
I truly believe that if the Montreal Canadiens use the remainder of their cap space the right way and leverage it the way most teams seem to be doing, they could acquire some real promising assets. Whether that be draft picks or prospects is up to management.
But if they use the cap space the wrong way and sign a free agent the traditional way, it could send them into a long tailspin that only hurts the franchise as time goes on.