Montreal Canadiens General Manager Marc Bergevin has added pieces to his lineup. Does he have to offload a contract?
The Montreal Canadiens have finally been active in the offseason and have added several pieces to the lineup for next season. They are bringing back most of their top players from a year ago, though Max Domi was traded.
Domi was dealt to the Columbus Blue Jackets with a third round pick for Josh Anderson. Picks were sent to the St. Louis Blues for Jake Allen. A pick was sent to the Carolina Hurricanes for Joel Edmundson and Tyler Toffoli signed as a free agent.
These moves put the Canadiens very close to the salary cap for the first time in years.
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Anderson signed a seven-year contract with a $5.5 million cap hit. Allen will earn a cap hit of $4.3 million in the final year of his contract. Edmundson inked a four-year pact with an annual salary of $3.5 million and Toffoli signed a four-year deal with a cap hit of $4.25 million.
When all was said and done, it looked like the Canadiens were over the cap and would have to move someone out. Someone like Paul Byron, Artturi Lehkonen, Joel Armia or Bretty Kulak perhaps.
However, a closer look at the team’s roster suggests they can pull this off without trading anyone off the roster. They just can’t add, like, at all.
The only way the Habs can do this is by carrying a 22 man roster instead of the maximum of 23. This means they can have one extra forward and one extra defenceman on the roster at any time. It would leave them with about $200,000 in cap space with a 22 man roster.
The extra players they do carry would have to have the smallest cap hits possible. That isn’t a big deal, it just means Noah Juulsen would have to be the 7th defenceman, or Victor Mete if Juulsen is the team’s number 6, but both Mete and Juulsen need to be on the roster since their cap hits are minimal. Juulsen will make $700,000 next season and Mete is set to earn $735,000.
The extra forward would have to be someone who makes about $700,000 as well. This means Jordan Weal would need to be put on waivers and sent to the minors. That could be Lukas Vejdemo, Laurent Dauphin or Alex Belzile who all have a cap hit of $700,000 next season.
It leaves the Habs in an unfamiliar position, since they had so much cap space the past few years. However, it is a position fans were hoping they would be willing to venture towards. Now, they are in a position where they can keep all their current players, but they need to pinch every penny.
It means Alexander Romanov might not fit on the NHL roster, because his $894,167 cap hit is too much larger than Juulsen’s $700,000.
When Toffoli signed, it looked like the Habs were going to be over the cap and would need to trade a good player like Lehkonen or Kulak. However, if they just go with a 22 man roster, they can just barely squeeze everyone in without losing a roster player.