The Montreal Canadiens were able to pull off the Jeff Petry trade, sending him to the Pittsburgh Penguins, along with Ryan Poehling, for Mike Matheson and a 4th round pick.
The trade didn’t free up the cap space that was expected from a Petry deal, but it does add an intriguing left shot defender in Matheson. The 28 year old is a phenomenal skater who has shown some flashes of offensive ability during his time with the Florida Panthers and Penguins.
The biggest question left to answer after the Petry deal is, who is going to play the right side of the defence next season? David Savard and Chris Wideman are signed, but it takes more than two to
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get through an NHL season.
Well, even though he is a left shot defender, what about Sam Girard of the Colorado Avalanche?
The 24 year old has often played on the right side anyway, often partnering with Bowen Byram for a dynamic second pairing for the Avs. With the acquisition, and re-signing of Josh Manson, the Avalanche now have a group of defenders that includes Devon Toews and Cale Makar on the top pair, Byram and Manson on the second unit and Girard with veteran Erik Johnson as the third defence pair.
That’s an absolutely elite defender group, but it is also an $11 million third pairing when you factor in Girard being signed for the next five seasons at $5 million and Johnson heading into the final year on his contract with a $6 million cap hit.
While the Avs are absolutely stacked on defence, they have already lost a top six forward in Andre Burakovsky, and also have a gaping hole at second line centre where Nazem Kadri played last season. He still hasn’t signed elsewhere, but Colorado doesn’t have the cap space to bring him back right now.
Unless they trade a defender like Girard. The Roberval, Quebec native could be made expendable since he is behind Toews and Byram on the left side of the depth chart. If the Avs want to bring back Kadri after his 87 point season in 71 games, they would have to trade Girard’s contract.
What would they want in return? Picks, and good ones that they can use at next year’s trade deadline to add talent for another run at the Stanley Cup. Maybe second round picks in 2023 and 2024 would be enough, but the Avalanche would probably want the Florida Panthers 1st round pick in 2023 which the Habs acquired in the Ben Chiarot deal.
If the team is confident Carey Price will be on LTIR next season, they wouldn’t have to worry about the salary cap at all. If they don’t know Price’s status, or he is healthy, they would then have to turn around and clear out about $5 million in salary just to make space. That might get costly if no one wants to take on a player like Mike Hoffman or Jonathan Drouin.
The Arizona Coyotes can always be tempted to take a bad contract at the right price, so maybe Drouin and a 2nd round pick to the Coyotes for nothing would give the Canadiens the cap space they need to acquire Girard.
So, essentially they would be giving up a first and a second round pick to fit in a 24 year old, super skilled offensive defenceman that can play either side of the ice with ease. This would give the Canadiens a top four that includes Girard playing with Joel Edmundson and David Savard playing with Matheson.
Girard and Matheson would quickly become the veteran leaders among a group that would include Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris and Justin Barron within a year or two.
The Avalanche would then have the cap space to re-sign their elite second line centre and still have an incredible group of defenders. Girard was limited to just seven playoff games, breaking his sternum on a big hit in Game 3 of the second round. So, even though he is a great defender, the Avs literally just won the Stanley Cup without him, and would still have a good enough blue line to do it again next season after trading him.
It is a deal that seems to make sense for both sides, as long as the Habs could find the cap space to bring Girard home.
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