The Montreal Canadiens season is not going well and they are likely to sell off a few assets at the very least and could be on the cusp of a complete teardown.
If they are, they aren’t going to have to worry about the salary cap anytime soon. Which is why the recent news about the salary cap could be perfect timing for the Canadiens.
It was announced at the annual general manager’s meetings late last week that the salary cap is not likely to go up much in the next two seasons.
In fact, the cap will increase from $81.5 million this season to $82.5 million for 2022-23 and likely won’t go up much into 2023-24. Then? It could be in for a huge increase. The reason for that is the players owe a pile of money to the owners for lost revenue during the pandemic season(s). It is projected that the debt will be paid off by the end of the 2023-24 season and then the salary cap can be directly tied to revenues once again.
When that happens, things like the new tv deal in the United States and the increased revenues from a 32rd team in Seattle will be calculated into the cap projections. That will make a big impact and the cap will increase dramatically.
If the Canadiens are about to sell off their veterans, they likely don’t plan on being a contender for the next two seasons either. If not, they could enter the offseason after the 2023-24 season with an enormous amount of cap space before we even factor in a ten million, or possibly more, increase in the salary cap.
Now, we are projecting well into the future here, but there are already a couple of key targets for the 2024 offseason in free agency.
Interestingly, that is the end of Sebastian Aho’s five year deal that he signed as an offer sheet with the Canadiens before the Carolina Hurricanes matched.
Also, Auston Matthews will be headed to free agency that year as well and you know he is going to test the market for the biggest payday.
It is still well over two years away, but the Canadiens are about to enter a rebuild. The slowly increasing salary cap could allow them to come flying out of it with a big signing in 2024.
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