Montreal Canadiens Could Help Out Bruins… For A Hefty Fee

The Montreal Canadiens busy offseason is underway. They have already re-signed Cole Caufield to a long-term contract and decided to keep Sean Monahan around for another year.

The next week will be extremely busy for all teams around the league. The NHL Draft is coming up on Wednesday night and Thursday. After just a one day break, free agent frenzy will kick off on Saturday.

The time around the draft and free agency is also usually the busiest time of year for trades, so expect a lot of movement for each team in the next seven days. The Canadiens are one team that has a lot of cap space, so they have more options that teams that are up against the slowly rising salary cap.

A year ago, the Canadiens used this to their advantage by acquiring Monahan and a first round pick from the Calgary Flames. The Flames needed cap space and didn’t think Monahan was worth his $6.375 million so they attached a high draft pick to entice the Canadiens to take him off their hands.

Could the Canadiens look to do something similar this offseason? They have the space to do so, and there are plenty of desperate teams out there that would be looking to get rid of contracts.

One of those teams is the Boston Bruins. The Bruins have less than $5 million in cap room, according to capfriendly.com, and a lot of holes to fill on their roster. They appear to be losing both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci who were their top two centers a year ago. They need to re-sign Jeremy Swayman who was an excellent 1B in goal for them last season, and they reportedly are very high on Tyler Bertuzzi who they acquired at the trade deadline and want to fit him in as well.

Re-signing a really good young goalie, a top free agent and finding a way to replace the two best centers on the team is not going to be cheap. The Bruins won’t be able to fill any of those holes for less than $5 million. They really need to find a way to move out some salary.

Mike Reilly would be high on their list of players to move out. The former Canadiens defenseman has one year remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $3 million. The Bruins don’t really have another “bad” contract on the books. They probably wish Derek Forbort and Charlie Coyle were making a little less money, but they also play well in their roles.

The Canadiens really don’t need another left defenseman, but bringing back Reilly would be about taking on salary to get a free draft pick or prospect, not about filling a hole in the lineup. He would be ticketed to the AHL where he scored 26 points in 36 games last season.

What would be the asset that makes this worthwhile for the Habs? That is hard to say, because the Bruins have already traded away a lot of their future picks. They don’t have a first round pick until 2025 and they don’t have a second round pick until 2026. Perhaps the Canadiens acquire Reilly with a third round pick in the upcoming draft to alleviate some cap troubles for the Bruins?

Maybe the Habs somehow convince the Bruins they plan on offer sheeting Swayman, and agree to take on Reilly instead to get Swayman at a decent price. With the Bruins so close to the cap, they probably can’t afford to pay Swayman his market value, and also keep Linus Ullmark, so it is a possibility.

We don’t often see trades between the Canadiens and Bruins, but if the Habs are willing to take on salary like they did a year ago, the first team they should call is their old division rival.

Want your voice heard? Join the A Winning Habit team!

Write for us!