The Montreal Canadiens have two more new faces within the organization and one of them is Tomas Tatar after trading Max Pacioretty to Vegas.
The theme of this offseason for the Montreal Canadiens is brought to you by the letter “T.” T for turnover. The 2018 NHL Draft, Free Agent Frenzy, and a number of deals have the Habs looking like a different team on certain levels. The latest entries into the fold are Tomas Tatar and Nick Suzuki who are making their way to Montreal while former captain Max Pacioretty heads in the other direction.
It wasn’t a clean deal, however. The Montreal Canadiens retained 10% of Pacioretty’s salary leaving a remaining $450,000 on the books until the rest of the season. Additionally, the Vegas Golden Knights took back some of Tatar’s salary (9.434% of it) leaving a $500,000 hole for another three years. But the Habs are still looking good cap-wise as they have $7,062,025 left to work with (and hopefully mortgage) for the upcoming months).
Another thing to keep in mind is Montreal’s contract number, which is now at 48. With two away from the 50 contract limit, training camp may have gotten a little more interesting. Cale Fleury must really try to force management’s hand now, but it also goes down to PTO signing Simon Despres who is determined to play professionally in North America again.
But those are questions to be answered in the next few weeks. For now, the Montreal Canadiens have players to help out, and unless you’ve caught a lot of Detroit or OHL games, both may be mysterious to some extent. On the other hand, Tatar was in the lineup for the Disney-infused Vegas team, but his role was reduced as the season went on.
So who are these guys and why should fans look forward to either of them.