Montreal Canadiens: 3 Players That Could Be Traded To Create Cap Space
Paul Byron
Marc Bergevin said in his press conference there was no player he would refer to as dead cap money on the team. The closest player to that description would be Paul Byron. If he is not dead cap money he is at least having the hardest time justifying his own pay this season.
Byron was once a bottom six forward who could kill penalties, score 20 goals and was among the fastest players in the entire league. That just hasn’t been the case since his new contract kicked in last season.
The 31 year old gained a reputation as one of the biggest bargains in the league when he earned less than $1.2 million from 2016-2019. He averaged just over 20 goals and 40 points per 82 games played in those three seasons.
However, he scored just four goals and ten points in 29 games last season and has two goals and seven points in 28 games this year.
HIs defensive game is still fine and he is a regular on the penalty kill. However, his lack of offence makes him easy to replace and Arthur Lehkonen could step into a fourth line role and kill penalties if Byron were to be moved out.
If the Habs find a way to trade Byron, they could suddenly add a player making $5 million at the trade deadline. Let’s say they want to add Filip Forsberg. Part of the deal would have to be Nashville retaining $1 million of his $6 million cap hit, and they would also have to take on Byron.
The Canadiens would then have to add significant assets to get Forsberg, but if they want a player earning that kind of money, moving out Byron is a must.
Joel Armia
Joel Armia is a unique player. He plays a great defensive game, wins lots of puck battles along the boards, forcing a lot of turnovers, kills a lot of plays in the defensive zone and kills penalties too.
However, he just simply can’t find a way to provide offence on a consistent basis. This season, the big right winger has ten points in 22 games. Four of those points came in one game and he has a tendency to go into fairly lengthy scoring slumps, between short bursts of incredible offence.
Armia has a lot of value in his defensive game, but the Habs are incredibly deep on right wing. He plays the same position as Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson, Tyler Toffoli and Corey Perry. Toffoli has been moved to left wing to ease the logjam, but Cole Caufield will be here soon enough to add another right shooting right winger into the mix.
If the Canadiens want to add an impact left defenceman, or maybe even a goal scoring left winger, or a reliable veteran centre, it might come at the expense of Armia.
The Finnish winger is going to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and is unlikely to return anyway. His cap hit this season is $2.6 million, so if he moves out, the Habs can bring in a player making $4.3 million on the cap this season.
That gives the Habs just enough cap to add a player like Ryan Getzlaf with half his salary retained. He isn’t the player he once was, but then again neither is his former winger Corey Perry and he’s looked pretty good in Habs colors. Imagine if he was playing with his longtime linemate instead of Jake Evans.