Canadiens: Three Contracts Habs Need To Get Rid, Even For Nothing

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The Montreal Canadiens offseason is well underway and it has been anything but boring. Shea Weber was traded, Alexander Romanov was dealt, they acquired Kirby Dach.

Oh yeah, and they selected 11 new prospects including first overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky. Filip Mesar was also drafted in the first round, Owen Beck and Lane Hutson are intriguing second round picks and the Habs were just getting warmed up at that point.

After adding a total of 11 players through the draft, the Canadiens got set for their development camp which began yesterday with off-ice testing and workouts. It will continue for the next three days with on-ice practice sessions and scrimmages.

It will be a great chance for fans to get their first look at the newest draft picks as well as other top prospects in the system. There are a total of 40 players taking part in the development camp in Brossard.

We will have to wait a bit longer before we see Kirby Dach in a Canadiens sweater. First, him and the team need to agree on a new contract. He is a restricted free agent and though coming to terms on a deal with the big centre likely won’t be a huge issue, finding cap space for him might take a little tinkering.

Right now, according to capfriendly.com, the Canadiens have a little less than $2 million in cap space. They also need to sign Dach to get to 12 forwards and only have six forwards and two goaltender on the roster, so they are the minimum number of players, but maximum cap space if Dach signs with a $1.9 million cap hit.

They would also like to sign Rem Pitlick and Michael Pezzetta, and have a little wiggle room under the cap as well. How can they do that? They need to get rid of any of these contracts, even if it means little or nothing coming back in the deal aside from cap space.

Paul Byron

Paul Byron went from one of the most underpaid players in the league to one with a contract that was a bit too rich when Marc Bergevin gave him the extension he is currently playing under.

When he was making less than $2 million and scoring 20 goals, he was a bargain and a great player to have on the team’s third line and penalty kill. Then came the new contract, and the production dried up at the same time.

Injuries certainly have not helped, as Byron has played just 102 games in the past three years combined. That’s all while making $3.4 million per season against the cap. He scored at a 20 goal pace in each of the three previous seasons, but has just 13 goals in those 102 games since he became a far richer man.

Byron is a great leader to have in the room and a quality teammate. But he just isn’t worth his cap hit anymore. At 33 years of age, he is heading into the final year of his contract. If anyone else is willing to take it on to add a veteran to their bottom six, the Canadiens should be happy to hand him over just to clear the cap space off the books.

Mike Hoffman

Mike Hoffman was an interesting signing right from the day he joined the Canadiens organization. Interesting in the fact he could maybe help out on the power play, but also interesting in the fact there really wasn’t a spot for him at even strength.

When he joined the Canadiens, fresh off their run to the Stanley Cup Final, they were returning seven of their eight regular wingers from the playoffs, plus Jonathan Drouin was coming back from his time off. There really wasn’t a great fit for Hoffman.

A year later, and there still kind of isn’t. Who is he best suited to play with? He’s not good enough to play on a top line with Cole Caufield. He’s not defensive enough to play with Brendan Gallagher or Joel Armia. There just isn’t really a perfect spot for him in the lineup.

He finished off the first year of his three year contract in third on the team’s scoring list. That sounds pretty good, but when you realize it only took him scoring 15 goals and 35 points in 67 games to get there, it isn’t really worth the $4.5 million he is being paid.

There are two more years left on that contract and Hoffman is now 32 years old. Can he return to his 30 goal days? Unlikely, and if not, his cap hit is way too high. If another team wants to pick him up for next to nothing in a trade, the Canadiens should be all ears.

Joel Armia

Marc Bergevin really liked his depth, defensive wingers didn’t he? Paul Byron got a ton of money, and so did Joel Armia. It appeared that the big Finnish winger was heading to free agency at the end of last season, but he got a contract extension he couldn’t refuse from Bergevin.

A four year deal with a cap hit of $3.4 million. That was after scoring seven goals and 14 points in 41 regular season games. He had 30 points in 58 games the season prior and the year before that he scored 23 points in 57 games.

So, a reasonable person would expect him to score about 30-35 points over a full season. Bergevin figured that was wroth a hefty contract extension. In year one of that contract, Armia scored 14 points in 60 games for the Canadiens.

Now, he is 29 years old and has three years left on a contract that pays him about double what he was worth last season. He does play solid defensive hockey and can kill penalties, but you can find players to do that for much less than $3.4 million on a four year contract.

If any team in the entire league has the slightest interest in taking on the rest of Armia’s contracts, the Canadiens need to hand him over and just stop asking questions immediately. A 7th round pick in 2036? Sure! Done deal!

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