RUMOR: Canadiens And Coyotes Working On Shea Weber Trade

As mentioned more than once and even recently, Kent Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens’ upper brass are working their tails off in order to trade Shea Weber’s contract.

The ever popular Steve Dangles mentioned that the NHL nixed a trade between the Canadiens and Coyotes at the trade deadline. The Coyotes instead turned towards the Winnipeg Jets and acquired Bryan Little’s contract.

Chris Johnston mentioned on his recent podcast with the always excellent Julian MacKenzie that the NHL voided the trade because of insurance issues. Little’s contract covers the entirety of his salary, but in Weber’s case, only a portion of the salary is insurable. Given that Weber is making an actual salary of $6 million this season, the high price made things complicated on an accounting point of view.

Weber is scheduled to make $3 million in 2022-23 and then $1 million annually for the remaining of his contract that expires after the 2025-26 season. He will still however count for $7,857,143 against the salary cap.

Johnston also mentions that a bigger trade might happen in the off-season involving Weber and possibly an underachieving NHL player.

Of course, the usual suspects will be thought of. Players such as Jonathan Drouin, Mike Hoffman, Joel Armia, Jeff Petry and Paul Byron who all carry heavy cap hits will be rumored.

On Arizona’s side, we will likely see the name of Andrew Ladd appear the most. The 36 year old has one year left on his contract at a $5.5 million salary, which makes it less heavy for the Canadiens to absorb given that he will likely retire at the end of the 2022-23 season. He does have a 15 team no trade list but if the Canadiens were to acquire him, there’s the option of letting him play or simply buying out the final year of his contract.

Jakob Chychrun will be made available this summer and the Coyotes will do what it takes to get maximum value for the defenceman, who will be submitting a 10 team no trade list for the final two year of his contract which runs until the end of the 2024-25 season at a $4.6 million cap hit.

Of course Chychrun would be give the Canadiens a massive upgrade at the blue line, however Kent Hughes would have to offer a king’s ransom in order to obtain the Florida native.

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