Arizona Coyotes
When you have a cap problem, who ya gonna call? Gostisbehere’s acquiring team. The Montreal Canadiens don’t really have a cap problem, more of a numbers problem with too many forwards under contract and a desire to play the younger players more than the veterans.
But, when you have a contract you want to get rid of, the team you need to call is the Coyotes. The problem with dealing with Arizona is they usually want to get paid for taking your bad contract and don’t usually give anything up in return.
They acquired draft picks along with Shayne Gostisbehere, Zach Kassian among many others over the years. The Canadiens are not going to want to give anything up to get rid of Hoffman, but would the Coyotes consider taking him for next to nothing and then trying to flip him at the next trade deadline for a better return?
It is possible in a place like Arizona that Hoffman gets ice time with a skilled playmaker like Clayton Keller or Matias Macelli and scores at a 25 goal pace for most of the season. If he can do that, the Coyotes could possibly land a second or third round pick for him at the deadline from a contending team looking for a little more scoring depth.
Even if the Coyotes can’t trade Hoffman at the deadline, having his cap hit on the books make it easier to trade other players like Jason Zucker at the trade deadline for a bigger return since they won’t fall below the cap minimum.
The Canadiens certainly can’t ask for a second or third round pick right now. But if they really want to move out Hoffman to open a roster spot for a younger player, trading him to Arizona for a 6th round pick would be an option.