The Montreal Canadiens made a major signing earlier this week, locking up Cole Caufield to an eight-year contract with a cap hit of $7.85 million. While that is a lot of money, they still have a significant amount of cap flexibility this offseason.
The Canadiens found themselves in a similar cap situation a year ago, which is not common for many teams around the league. Most teams are trying to find ways to clear cap space and are pinching every penny during the season to maximize their cap space.
The Canadiens took advantage of one of those teams last offseason by acquiring Sean Monahan from the Calgary Flames along with a first round pick in exchange for, well, nothing at all. Monahan had one year left on his contract at a cap hit of $6.375 million and the Flames wanted to get rid of him so they could sign Nazem Kadri.
Kadri was an unrestricted free agent fresh off a Stanley Cup win with the Colorado Avalanche while Monahan had dealt with several injuries in previous seasons and was held to eight goals and 23 points in 65 games. So, the Canadiens allowed the Flames to unload the cap space, at the cost of a 2025 first round draft pick.
They could very well do the same thing this offseason. The Canadiens are not likely to be super aggressive in free agency as they are not quite ready to compete in 2023-24 anyway, and there are not a lot of fantastic free agents to target either.
Instead, they could look to add a big contract with one year left once again. If they do go down that route, Anthony Mantha would make a lot of sense as a potential trade target.
Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff recently reported that the Washington Capitals are looking to move Mantha who has one year left on his contract at a cap hit of $5.7 million and they could even buy him out if they can’t find a taker. A buyout would still cost them roughly $1.37 million next season and about $2.2 million the following year.
Or, they could clear that entire contract off the books and free up enough space to bring back Dmitry Orlov by trading Mantha, plus a sweetener, to the Canadiens.
Mantha, who is from Longueuil, Quebec was once a blossoming, young goal scorer in the NHL. At 6’5″ and 234 pounds, he is a large specimen on the ice, but he was known more for his offense than physicality. He peaked at 16 goals and 38 points in 43 games in 2019-20 and appeared to be a lock to score 30 goals per season for the coming years.
A surprise trade to the Capitals seems to not have worked out for him as he had just 11 goals and 27 points in 67 games last season. In total, he has 24 goals and 58 points in 118 games since arriving in Washington in 2021. Hence, they don’t want to pay him his $6.5 million contract and have him take up $5.7 million in cap space next season.
With three years left on Alex Ovechkin’s contract, the Capitals are looking to contend now and could be convinced to attach a draft pick to Mantha to clear the cap space. They draft inside the top ten this season so it won’t be a first round pick, but if the Capitals were willing to give up their second round pick, which is 40th overall in the upcoming draft, it would make a lot of sense for the Canadiens to take on that contract.
Mantha could possibly find his confidence and start scoring again, like Monahan did. Playing in his home province, and in a contract year, he could be more motivated than ever to produce. If he does, and the Canadiens are outside the playoffs, Mantha could be dealt at the trade deadline for a nice haul from a contending team looking for scoring depth.
At 28 years old, he is certainly not over the hill, and it would be a win-win scenario for the Canadiens to acquire him with a pick, and then trade him for another pick in a few months. If the Capitals are as serious about moving Mantha as Seravalli reports, the Canadiens should be making calls now to try and acquire another valuable pick before the NHL Draft in three weeks.
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