Montreal Canadiens: Three Trades That Add Future Piece Without Giving Up Anything

The Montreal Canadiens have one thing that many teams don’t right now – cap space. How will they choose to use it?

The Montreal Canadiens have one advantage on many teams in the league this offseason. While most teams are worried about when they will make money from selling tickets again, and some teams like the Arizona Coyotes, are checking under the couch cushions in the locker room for loose change they can use to pay Clayton Keller, the Habs are a little more comfortable.

They have been one of the richest teams in the league for many years, but that may prove to be more of an advantage than ever before during this offseason.

The Canadiens could choose to go out and bid for the top free agents. Or, they could decide to weaponize their cap room in another way. They could look to acquire an overpaid player, and a draft pick, for little of nothing in return.

We have seen general manager Marc Bergevin make this kind of trade before. The Winnipeg Jets were desperate for some cap space two years ago and wanted to move out Steve Mason who was set to make $4.5 million in the last year of his contract. The Canadiens agreed to take on Mason, but also wanted Joel Armia, a promising, smart, young player and a couple of late draft picks as well.

The only thing headed back to the Jets was Simon Bourque who was far down the list of top prospects in the organization at the time.

More recently, we have seen the Detroit Red Wings take on the final year of Marc Staal’s contract from the New York Rangers. They also received a second round pick for helping the Rangers free up $5.7 million in cap space.

Last year, the Carolina Hurricanes were gifted a first round pick from the Toronto Maple Leafs for taking on the final year of Patrick Marleau’s contract.

Could the Canadiens do the same thing before next week’s NHL Draft? They have the cap space and the financial flexibility. They have struggled to attract free agents in the past, so maybe taking on money to add a high pick that they can trade for a star player is a better play?

If they do decide to go this route, what kind of trade could we expect?

St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis Blues are in far more cap trouble than the Jets. They can blame themselves for that, but they are now trying to find enough money to re-sign captain and star defenceman Alex Pietrangelo.

Maybe, just maybe they should have thought about that before inking Justin Faulk and Marco Scandella to fat extensions shortly after acquiring both. Priorities.

The Blues are showing just about $5 million in cap space heading into next season but need to re-sign Vince Dunn. Oh yeah, and Pietrangelo who is going to be a free agent in eight days. He would want at least $8 million on his own, so the Blues need to shed at least $5 million to make things work.

They do have two options to move to come up with that space. Well, three if you include build a time machine and don’t give Justin Faulk the same cap hit as Patrik Laine, Brayden Point and Ivan Provorov. Their other two options are to move out Tyler Bozak or Alex Steen.

Bozak is still a solid third line centre though his offence dipped from 38 points in 2018-19 to just 29 last season. Steen has seen his production drop way off. He had 46 points in 2017-18, but since then had put up seasons of 27 and 17 points. He had just five in 26 playoff games when the Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019.

Both players have one year left on their current contracts. Bozak will earn $5 million against the salary cap and Steen will count for $5.75 million. Bozak comes a little cheaper and can still play a shutdown role while killing penalties and winning faceoffs. Steen isn’t a liability defensively either as he still takes on a huge role while shorthanded, but he is 36 years old and his offence is gone.

The Habs could likely acquire Bozak and get a second round pick for their troubles. But Steen would get them a slightly better return.

Vancouver Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks have slowly but surely put themselves into one of the toughest cap situations in the league. Every year they sign more and more veteran free agents who basically do the same thing and they have seen their cap room diminish completely.

Now, they have a couple of key players like Jacob Markstrom, Chris Tanev and Tyler Toffolli about to become unrestricted free agents and not enough room to keep them all. That doesn’t even factor in next offseason when they will have to re-sign superstars Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes.

I haven’t checked every team in the league, but there is no way any team in the league is paying more for forwards that aren’t top six forwards than the Vancouver Canucks. Loui Eriksson, Brandon Sutter, Antoine Roussel, Jay Beagle Micheal Ferland and Sven Baertschi combine to earn more than $23 million. They also combined to score 24 goals at the NHL level last season.

A million bucks per goal is good money if you can get it. Just call Jim Benning, he’ll probably make an offer.

So, the Canucks need to shed at least one if not more of these forwards. The Canadiens could take one Sutter for a little incentive but he only has one year left and he makes less than $4.5 million so they aren’t getting a first round pick in that deal.

If they want to steal a first round pick away from the Canucks, they are going to have to take on more than the Red Wings did with Marc Staal. His cap hit is $5.7 million and the Wings received a second round pick in 2021 for taking that nasty contract.

The Habs would have to be willing to take on two of those aforementioned forwards if they want a first round pick from the Canucks. That is a lot to give up for Vancouver, but it is also a lot for the Habs to take on to their cap situation.

It would be risky. But Beagle could still play a fourth line role, he’s just overpaid for the role. Baertschi scored over a point per game at the AHL level last season, so he could fill in when injuries occur, he is just vastly overpaid for that position. For their troubles, the Canadiens have an additional first round pick in 2021 (a draft they will likely host.)