Montreal Canadiens: Flat, or Falling Cap Could Benefit Habs

By Ken MacMillan | May 8, 2020

BUFFALO, NY - JANUARY 30: Joel Armia #40 of the Montreal Canadiens. (Photo by Nicholas T. LoVerde/Getty Images) /

The Montreal Canadiens have not been spending to the salary cap in the past few years. They could use that to their advantage next season with other teams struggling to be cap compliant.

The Montreal Canadiens have somewhat infamously been frugal when it comes to spending over the past three years. While many teams are pithing a million dollars of the maximum salary allowed, and a handful of teams become quite creative when it comes to salary bonuses, long-term injury reserve and call-ups and demotions to the minors, they Habs have been well short of the cap.

Looking ahead to next season, things could be very similar. They don’t have anyone with a huge payday coming this summer, aside from maybe Max Domi. Although, he cost himself a lot of money with his subpar season this year after coming blasting out of the gates in his first season with the Habs.

Still, there is the possibility the Habs clear up more cap space by buying out the remaining two years on Karl Alzner‘s deal. They have been so far below the salary cap the past two years, it wasn’t necessary to clear out his $4.625 million hit, and that may or may not change this summer.

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There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the salary cap for next year. It usually isn’t announced until the last minute. Last summer, we went through the NHL Draft at the end of June without knowing exactly what the salary cap would be for the 2019-20 season. It was just a couple of days before free agency opened on July 1 that teams actually knew how much money they were allowed to spend on players.

Next season is going to be even more difficult to calculate, but there is no chance the cap is going to continue its ascent. Since it was initiated in 2005-06, the cap has gone up every year except one and that was during the 2012-13 season when there was another lockout that affected revenue. The cap bounced back quickly the following year and has risen from $64.3 million in 2013-14 to $81.5 million this season.

Next season? Not only is there chatter that it will not go up, there is increased discussion that there could be a rollback. After the 2004-05 season was wiped out due to another lockout, the players took a 24% pay cut on existing contracts. The NHLPA may be backed into a situation where they have to take a similar cut heading into next year.

This would ensure the cap is going down. Maybe not as much as 24%, but revenues for this season have been greatly affected by the global pandemic. The NHL can’t go into next season pretending everything is normal when it comes to revenue.

Now, this isn’t great news for individual players, but it could be terrific news for teams that actually have cap space. It is impossible to know how much cap space certain teams will have next year, because we have no idea what the cap is going to be or if the players are going to be dealing with a rollback in their salaries.

However, there are a few teams that are obviously in trouble when it comes to next year’s salary cap. The most troubled teams will be the Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins and Toronto Maple Leafs (though they are allowed to spend as much money as they want on players, aren’t they?)

We have seen the Habs use their extra cap space to pry a player away from a cash-strapped team in the past. They traded Simon Bourque to the Winnipeg Jets two years ago for Joel Armia, Steve Mason, fourth and seventh round draft picks. The Habs immediately bought out Mason from the final year of his contract, but got an interesting player in Armia for taking on Mason’s contract.

We could see the Habs do something similar this offseason (whenever that is). If the cap were just to stay at $81.5 million and the players don’t have to take a reduction in pay, the Lightning have about $5 million to spend on next year’s cap. They also have to re-sign Mikhail Sergachev and Anthony Cirelli who both played huge roles for them this season.

The Bolts will have a hard time freeing up cap space. Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, Yanni Gourde and Alex Killorn all have no-trade clauses in their contracts and they obviously won’t want to move Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point or Victor Hedman.

That leaves the Lightning prone to an offer sheet for Sergachev. Jeeze, what general manager actually has the stones to go down the offer sheet route? Oh right, the same guy who drafted Sergachev.

The Islanders are ironically in a situation where they might have to move Nick Leddy or Johnny Boychuk to clear up space. They acquired both defencemen on the same day on the eve of the 2014-15 season. The Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins needed to clear cap space and the Islanders were more than happy to deal some decent prospects and picks for the top pairing defenders.

Now, the Islanders may find themselves moving Leddy and the final two years of the 29 year olds contract to get cap compliant. A left shot defenceman who can play big minutes, quarterback a power play and skate well? Available on the cheap because the Isles need cap space. I think the Habs would be very interested.

The Maple Leafs aren’t likely to turn to the Habs for help, but the Penguins aren’t going to be able to afford both Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry next season. Could one of them become that trusted backup for Carey Price for the next couple of seasons that is desperately needed? Maybe.

Next. We could see the Habs and Leafs in the opening round of the postseason. dark

A falling cap is not the best thing for the NHL. However, there are a few teams, like the Montreal Canadiens, who could benefit from it. We have seen general manager Marc Bergevin use cap space as a weapon before. This summer may be the best opportunity ever to do something similar. Hopefully, while other teams suffer the cap crunch, we see the Habs pounce and land an important piece at a bargain price.