According to CapFriendly, the Montreal Canadiens have $14,671,191 in cap space for the upcoming offseason. With notable RFA’s such as Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Artturi Lehkonen needing new contracts, it will be interesting to see how Marc Bergevin (or whoever is the General Manager this summer) handles our UFA situation.
Let’s take a look at who’s set to hit free agency and take a wild guess on if we will see them in a bleu-blanc-rouge sweater next year.
Tomas Tatar
When Tomas Tatar came to Montreal as part of the Max Pacioretty trade, everyone claimed he was a throw-in in order to partially fill in the left wing void left by the former Canadiens captain.
At the 2017-18 trade deadline the Golden Knights paid a kings’ ransom to acquire “Tuna”; sending a 2018 1st round pick (#30 – Joe Veleno), a 2019 2nd round pick (NYI’s pick #54 – Robert Mastrosimone) and a 2021 3rd round pick. Vegas was all in during their Cinderella expansion season and they had hoped that the Slovak sniper was able to bring them to the promised land.
Tatar never managed to get comfortable in Vegas and in the final 20 games of the campaign, only had 4 goals, 2 assists and a paltry +/- -11. Come playoff time, his play was so lackluster that he only played 8 games. Needless to say, the team was desperately trying to unload his contract as Tatar had just signed a new 4 year $21.2 million contract with the Red Wings that year. Thankfully, Montreal bit with Vegas holding $500,000 of the $5.3 million annual contract.
Pros: Tuna quickly turned this around and has quickly gained fans in Montreal as well. He went back to being the player everyone expected him to be; a 20-25 goal sniper who stays out of the penalty box and plays an honest game. With the Habs he collected career highs in points in each of his first 2 seasons with the club with 58 and 61.
Cons: When it’s time for the playoffs, Tatar has a history of becoming a ghost. He contributed next to nothing in last year’s playoffs with the Habs notching only 2 points, both of them goals, in 10 games.
Prediction: GONE (Will get a 4-year $24 million contract elsewhere)
At age 30 and with his 2 best seasons just behind him, Tatar will still likely command anywhere between $5-6 million per year, which is something the Canadiens can spend elsewhere. They have a better and cheaper option in Tyler Toffoli and there’s money needed in order to re-sign other players from within the club.