Montreal Canadiens: Five Bad Contracts To Acquire Alongside a 1st Round Draft Pick

James van Riemsdyk

The Philadelphia Flyers have long been an aggressive team in the offseason. That hasn’t changed recently, as they made a couple of big trades last year to bring in Rasmus Ristolainen and Ryan Ellis to help on the blue line.

It didn’t work out this season with Ristolainen not playing great and Ellis being hurt for much of the year. But, instead of trading Ristolainen at the trade deadline, they extended him for the next five years. That should signal they aren’t planning a rebuild, but want to will try once again to compete next season.

One player they have been rumoured to be interested in for years in Johnny Gaudreau. He just had a career year and will hit the open market if the Flames can’t find a way to re-sign him. If they do, the Habs could take on a Flames contract like Monahan, but if the Flames can’t keep Gaudreau, the Canadiens could help the Flyers land him by taking on a bad contract from the Flyers.

That contract would belong to James van Riemsdyk. He has one year left on his deal with a cap hit of $7 million. Though he was once a great goal scoring left winger, the 33 year old has become something of a power play specialist. He did score 24 goals this season, but had just 14 assists, and nine of his goals came on the man advantage.

He doesn’t bring much defensively, but still has great hands around the net. If the Flyers have a chance to sign Gaudreau, and bring him much closer to home, they would love to move out JVR’s final year to clear space.

The Flyers clearly aren’t trading this year’s 1st round pick since it is 5th overall. But the Canadiens could convince the Flyers to offer up their 2023 1st round pick if it meant they had space for Gaudreau.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Gaudreau this offseason. But whether he stays in Calgary or not, the Canadiens could help someone land the star left winger by taking on a bad contract and a first round pick or a top prospect to go with it.

Want your voice heard? Join the A Winning Habit team!

Write for us!