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.

Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers are admittedly not the perfect destination for Joel Armia, but there is a trade that might make sense for both sides. Armia broke into the league with the Winnipeg Jets and their head coach at the time was Paul Maurice.

Paul Maurice was just hired by the Florida Panthers to be their head coach. So there is some familiarity between the two. Armia wasn’t a top line scorer or anything at that time, but he showed plenty of promise and Maurice would recall his versatility and defensive game.

The problem is, the Panthers are already in cap trouble and need some help heading into next season. The only way they would be interested in an Armia trade is if it actually saves them money next season.

The Canadiens could accommodate that by taking Patric Hornqvist back in the trade. He is also a right winger but has just one year left on his contract at $5.3 million. He scored just 28 points in 65 games last season.

An Armia for Hornqvist swap would cost the Canadiens almost an extra $2 million next season, but save them the final two years of Armia’s three year contract.

Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens make unlikely trade partners. As do the Panthers for that matter, but Ben Chiarot was just dealt there so who knows? It’s just that division rivals rarely make deals together.

If they do, you can be sure top prospects or draft picks like won’t be involved. The only types of trades you are likely to see between division rivals are the typical “seller” giving up an expiring piece to a “contender” like when Chiarot went from Montreal to Florida.

The other type of trade is a classic “change of scenery” and see what happens deal. That’s what the Canadiens and Senators could pull off. The Sens are likely about to trade Connor Brown and could use a veteran right shot right winger like Armia to take on defensive minutes.

The Sens are also rumoured to be looking to move Colin White, and the Canadiens apparently hd talks about that player, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes was White’s agent before taking on his current role, so he could be interested in bringing White to Montreal.

White is just 25 but has just 51 points in 130 games over the past three seasons. He had a breakout season in 2018-19 where he scored 41 points in 71 games but hasn’t been able to match that production. He has three years left on his contract with a cap hit of $4.75 million.

He is also younger and has more potential offensive upside than Armia, so maybe a swap of players needing a new home could work.

Arizona Coyotes

If you have a bad contract, call the Arizona Coyotes, am I right? In the past, they have taken on Jay Beagle, Loui Eriksson, Antoine Roussel, Andrew Ladd, Shayne Gostisbehere, Nick Ritchie and Anton Stralman.

And that was just last season. Don’t even start with the “retired” players that ended up there like Chris Pronger, Pavel Datsyuk and Dave Bolland etc. The Coyotes love to take on players that no longer fit with their current teams, it just costs a little to make the transaction work.

The previous potential trades I mentioned actually resulted in the Canadiens taking on more money for next season, but that isn’t ideal. They need to clear out space, and still could by trading Mike Hoffman or Jeff Petry, but it would be trickier to negotiate if they are way over the cap after an Armia deal. It just makes sense to clear the cap space if they are going to trade Armia.

Three years left with a cap hit of $3.4 million? For a player that can actually play and would likely be a second or third line player on the Coyotes? It’s important to note that Armia’s actual salary was only $2 million last season and will be $4.8 million in 2023-24. The Coyotes won’t like that.

The Panthers had to attach a second round pick and a depth prospect to get the Coyotes to take on the final year of Stralman’s contract. A second round pick was also attached to Gostisbehere to take on the final two years of his contract, though his actual pay was low.

Do the Habs want to add a sweetener to get rid of Armia and clear space? Probably not, but it is an option.

Los Angeles Kings

If anyone is going to be interested in acquiring Joel Armia’s contract, wouldn’t it be the guy who offered it to him in the first place? As one of the final transactions before he was fired as Canadiens general manager, it was Marc Bergevin who signed Armia to an extension shortly before he hit the free agent market.

Now, Bergevin is working for the Los Angeles Kings, and though he isn’t the GM, he is a special advisor to the team’s general manager, Rob Blake. It seems likely he would put in a good word for Armia, as he surely did for Phillip Danault, a signing that worked out tremendously for the Kings.

The Kings lost Dustin Brown to retirement and have a lot of young centres that could be pushing for minutes this season. Anze Kopitar and Danault are the top two, but 19 year old Quinton Byfield, 22 Gabe Vilardi and 22 year old Rasmus Kupari will all play bottom six minutes down the middle at points next season.

They could use a trusted, veteran, defensively sound winger with that untapped offensive potential that we see on occasion. The Kings are one of a few teams who could actually see enough value that they offer up a pick to take on all of Armia’s contract.

They have tons of cap space, even after acquiring Kevin Fiala and signing him to a monster extension. They have the room, could use a veteran on their bottom six and employ the guy who singed Armia.