Montreal Canadiens Likely To Take Advantage Of Buyout Window

The Montreal Canadiens have a busy offseason ahead of them. The first thing on the agenda is to deal with a few onerous contracts. They could take care of that by using the buyout window that is now open.

The Montreal Canadiens have plenty of cap space this offseason. As it currently stands, they have almost $12 million to play with under the salary cap. The only players that need contracts are Joel Armia, Charles Hudon and Artturi Lehkonen.

The three aforementioned wingers are serviceable depth players, but none of them are going to break the bank when they re-sign this summer. That leaves the Canadiens with enough money to add an impact player via trade or free agency.

The only thing is, Montreal could stand to add a couple of big-name players this summer. The list of unrestricted free agents, restricted free agents and players on the rumour mill is quite impressive. The Habs have enough to sign Alex Edler or Joe Pavelski or Matt Duchene, offer sheet Kasperi Kapanen or trade for Shayne Gostisbehere or Nick Leddy.

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However, if they use the buyout window, they would open up even more cap space and could add two impact players to their roster. The list of available players is especially deep this year. Marc Bergevin needs to ensure his team is capable of taking advantage of that by having as much cap space available as possible.

One player who could be the target of a buyout is Dale Weise. He was reacquired by the Canadiens midway through the season from the Philadelphia Flyers but failed to prove he could have any impact at the NHL level. He has one year left with a $2.35 million cap hit. That’s an overpay for a 13th forward or minor league winger.

If Weise is bought out, the Canadiens would be stuck with a cap hit of $1,183,333 for the upcoming season. That would save them about $1.2 million off the cap for next season. The thing is, if Weise were to be sent to the minors, the Canadiens would save $1.075 million for sending him down.

That’s a pretty negligible amount. For the sake of $100,000 off the cap, the Canadiens may as well just keep Weise and send him to the Laval Rocket for the season. Sure, he is overpaid to be an American Hockey League winger, but it wouldn’t hurt to have him be a leader of your top minor league affiliate.

The Rocket could have Ryan Poehling and Nick Suzuki as the top two centres next season. It wouldn’t hurt to have a hardworking veteran like Weise to lead them and show them what it takes to be a professional hockey player. Weise has carved out a decent career because of his determination and ability to outwork opponents. Instilling this belief in the next generation of Habs stars from the start of their careers would be beneficial.

The other player who could be cut loose is Karl Alzner. The defenseman was brought in two years ago, and it was thought he could be a perfect partner for Jeff Petry. As it turns out, Alzner spent most of his second season in the minor leagues.

The 30-year-old defender has three years left with a cap hit of $4.625 million. Buying him out today would save them $3.5 million next season. Alzner will have a huge cap hit in 2020-21 based on the bonuses structured into his deal. They would save next to nothing that season but would relieve themselves of close to $2.5 million in 2021-22.

Alzner would then carry forward a cap hit of $1,069,444 for the following three seasons, a time when his current contract would be done. So that’s big savings in 2019-20 and 2021-22, minor savings in 2020-21 and a small payment from 2022-25.

That $3.5 million for next season could be huge for the Canadiens though. If they combine that with their current cap space and send Weise to the minors, they have close to $17 million to spend this summer.

That gives them the flexibility to not only add a left defenceman but also bring in a goal-scoring forward that can help the power play. This would make the Montreal Canadiens a very dangerous team heading into next season and almost assure them a return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.