The Montreal Canadiens will have salary cap space to work with going forward … Area of need, and pending UFA Mike Matheson
TSN: After the Montreal Canadiens extended Lane Hutson, they have a core group of six players signed at about $47 million, which is tremendous value with the salary cap ceiling going up over $100 million. Chris Johnston notes that Canadiens GM Kent Hughes preached an internal cap/structure. It’s not a hard cap, but the idea that players should take a little less to help build a stronger team.
Defenseman Mike Matheson is a pending UFA, and thinks the Canadiens will look to see if there is a deal that could be made. Zac Bolduc will be a RFA after the season, and Ivan Demidov will be extension eligible next summer.
Gino Reda asks Johnston how the Canadiens are going to use their salary cap space and what area of need they have. Johnston says ideally, they would add a left-handed centerman.
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They’re in a unique position where each of the centres on their roster are right-handed shots, which presents some challenges for faceoffs and other things, but Montreal has been on that for a little while now, it was a market they were exploring over the summer, nothing really materialized there, and if we look broadly at the NHL’s trade market, it’s just been kind of frozen for a little bit.
The Canadiens will wait to see for teams to fall out of the race early and look to move someone out. They’ve been checking in with teams for a while now to keep up with who might become available.
TSN: Pierre LeBrun said that after the Lane Hutson, Kent Hughes, and Jeff Gorton extensions, a Mike Matheson extension could bre their next priority.
“They want to extend Mike Matheson. I’m told Mike Matheson and his agent are interested in having that conversation. So that’ll get going at some point here in the near future.
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The question is, what’s the sweet spot here? He’s 31 years old. He does not want to sign a short-term deal, I think. It has to be four to five years for it to make sense for him. What’s the AAV that makes sense for Montreal? They need something that takes their cap culture.”
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