Montreal Canadiens Will Have Second Buyout Window Next Week

The Montreal Canadiens have settled all of their potential arbitration cases early. That means they will have a second buyout window open up in three days.

The Montreal Canadiens had three forwards file for arbitration earlier this month. Charles Hudon, Joel Armia and Artturi Lehkonen all had the right to take their case to a third party arbitrator if they did not feel they were getting a fair offer from the Habs.

Armia and Lehkonen signed nearly identical contracts last week. The third and final possible arbitration case was also settled earlier today when Charles Hudon signed a one-year, one-way contract with the Habs worth $800,000.

That means the Canadiens will not have to head to arbitration with any of their players. It also means they will have a second window open up when they can potentially buyout contracts. Most teams only have a window in June to clear out onerous deals. However, when a player files for arbitration you get another window of opportunity to clear out a bad contract when the cases are settled.

The Canadiens will be given that opportunity in three days time, and will have 48 hours to make any decisions about possibly buying out a contract. So, they can’t make anything official until Monday and they have until Wednesday afternoon of next week to make a decision.

The only contract that could be hindering the team enough to consider going this route is Karl Alzner‘s. The 30-year-old defenceman signed a five-year contract with the Canadiens in the summer of 2017. He spent most of last season with the Laval Rocket of the AHL. That means he has three years left on his deal with an annual cap hit of $4.625 million and was not an NHL caliber player last season.

Buying out Alzner is a tricky proposition because of the bonuses built into his deal. If the Habs decide to buy him out next week instead of send him back to Laval it would save them about $2.5 million next season. However, it would actually cost them more in 2020-21.

Alzner’s actual salary for that season is only $1.5 million. His cap hit is set to be $4.625 million. Even if bought out, the Habs are on the hook for the $3.125 million in difference between his salary and cap hit. Add in the buyout penalty and he would count as a $4,194,444 cap hit even though he’d no longer be a member of the organization.

If they keep him and instead send him to the minors for a third straight year in 2020-21, they would save about $1.1 million for demoting him and be on the hook for about $3.525 million against the cap.

They’d actually save a little bit of cap space in 2020-21 if they keep him and send him to the minors instead of cutting him loose.

If they do buy him out, he would then count as a $2,194,444 cap hit in 2021-22 which is the last year of his current contract. The Canadiens would then be slapped with three additional years of a $1.069,444 million cap penalty that would run until 2025.

So basically, if the Habs buyout Alzner next week, it would save them $2.5 million next season, cost them about half a million extra the following year, save about $1.5 million in 2021-22 and then cost an additional $1,069,444 for three seasons.

The biggest savings would be for the upcoming season, but the Habs will have about $6.5 million in cap space already available once veterans like Alzner, Dale Weise and Matthew Peca clear waivers and get sent to the minors.

So, do the Habs really need to buyout Alzner? Probably not, unless they plan on adding a contract worth close to $10 million for next season.

The other possibility is they could want to open up a roster spot in Laval and don’t want Alzner eating up minutes for the Rocket that could go to a younger, developing player. The Rocket will have Xavier Ouellet, Gustav Olofsson, David Sklenicka and Otto Leskinen on the left side of their blue line looking for ice time.

Would they rather just cut bait with Alzner, even though they really don’t need the cap space for next season? This would give 22-year-old Leskinen a bigger role with the Rocket after coming over from Finland. Do the Habs want to have Leskinen play a bigger role, or do they want a veteran like Alzner mentoring their other young blue liners? I guess we will find out what the team decides by Wednesday afternoon.