Montreal Canadiens: Five Hypothetical Joel Armia Trades

The Montreal Canadiens are going to need to clear some cap space before the 2022-23 season begins. That is not an easy thing to do in the (mostly) flat cap world.

Teams just can’t increase payroll if the spending limit only goes up one million in a three year period. But, somehow the Canadiens are going to have to move out some money.

They traded Shea Weber’s contract which will keep them out of long term injured reserve for the foreseeable future. That is, assuming Carey Price is healthy enough to play next season. If he is, the Habs are well over the upper spending limit.

Trading Weber actually increased the Habs cap hit because they acquired a healthy Evgeni Dadonov. Weber was stashed away on LTIR all of last season and though that makes cap calculations a little trickier, it does allow the team to spend more. Dadonov’s full $5 million cap hit will count against the limit in 2022-23.

Right now, according to capfriendly.com, the Canadiens are basically up against the salary cap and are yet to re-sign Alexander Romanov and Rem Pitlick and a couple of depth pieces to fill out the roster.

One player they would likely want to move on from is right winger Joel Armia. Last season was his first under a four year contract that has a cap hit of $3.4 million. He scored six goals and 14 points in 60 games.

He now has three years left on his contract with a hefty cap hit for a bottom six player. But, Armia has been better in the past, is just 29 so isn’t old, and is a great defensive player and penalty killer.

Would anyone be willing to trade for Armia? Based on his size, track record and defensive play, I think a few teams would be willing to roll the dice that the Finnish winger would be a great fit on their third line and top penalty kill.

But who? And would they be able to take on that whole contract? Let’s take a look.