A Winning Habit
Fansided

Montreal Canadiens Need To Take Advantage of Rivals In Salary Cap Trouble

By Ken MacMillan

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 05: Joel Armia #40 of the Montreal Canadiens skates against the New York Islanders at Barclays Center on November 5, 2018 the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Montreal Canadiens defeated the New York Islanders 4-3 in a shootout. (Photo by Mike Stobe/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 05: Joel Armia #40 of the Montreal Canadiens skates against the New York Islanders at Barclays Center on November 5, 2018 the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Montreal Canadiens defeated the New York Islanders 4-3 in a shootout. (Photo by Mike Stobe/NHLI via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 5
Next
CHICAGO, IL – APRIL 01: Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Patrick Gorski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – APRIL 01: Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Patrick Gorski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Winnipeg Jets

The Jets have about $25 million in cap space but need to sign RFA’s Kyle Connor, Patrik Laine, Jacob Trouba, Laurent Brossoit and Andrew Copp. They also have Tyler Myers, Brandon Tanev, Ben Chiarot and Kevin Hayes as UFA’s.

Signing Laine and Connor will eat up most of their $25 million, so they could surely afford to shed some payroll. The first contract they’d likely want to move out is the last year of Dmitry Kulikov‘s deal at $4,333,333. Not only could Montreal afford to take this on, but they could also use the help on left defence.

The Jets aren’t desperate enough to move their top prospects. This means the Habs won’t be acquiring Jack Roslovic, Kristian Vesalainen or Sami Niku. However, maybe Bergevin could pry an interesting prospect like Mason Appleton, along with Kulikov.

Appleton is in a similar spot that Armia was a year ago. He has proven that he can excel at the AHL level but is having a hard time cracking the deep Jets lineup full time. He had 32 points in 40 games with the Manitoba Moose this season. He also put up 66 points in 76 games with the Jets AHL affiliate a year ago.

However, he has just ten points in 37 career NHL games. At 23 years of age, and heading into the final year of his entry-level deal, he could be poised for a breakout if given a chance to play full time in the NHL.

Home/Habs News