Montreal Canadiens Need Salary Cap Relief
Marco D’Amico of Montreal Hockey NOW: The Montreal Canadiens need to rid themselves of dead weight from a contract standpoint. Several players are either not playing (retired) or not all the useful to Montreal.
Shea Weber’s contract is a big one. There’s no question that Weber will not play again. Now, can Montreal can get something err anything to make it go away? Kent Hughes said that depends…
“Hypothetically, trading Petry would give us cap flexibility,” said Hughes. “If Carey can’t play, we have LTI money to work with. When we know more about Carey’s situation, it’s going to give us a little more of an indication as to what kind of cap flexibility we need or don’t.”
Again, moving Jeff Petry would be helpful and Petry did play better during the final month of the season. As for Weber and his $7.857 million cap hit, the Arizona Coyotes are the perfect partner. Keep in mind, the Coyotes will have limited dollars and need to get to the salary cap floor. Weber is perfect for that purpose.
Even Jonathan Drouin could well be on the move if Hughes can find a suitor. Again, this boils down to what need teams have. The general manager has options and it will be interesting to see what happens this summer.
Montreal Eyeing Defensemen like Justin Braun, Anton Stralman, Etc.
Marco D’Amico of Montreal Hockey NOW: Anton Stralman and Justin Braun have to be high on quite a few lists this summer as it comes to free agency. They arguably resurrected their careers in Arizona and Philadelphia. Both did in what could be best described as train wrecks.
Stralman could get a short-term deal at maybe $2.5-$3 million or so to close out his career. Then, there is Justin Braun. who might be a bit cheaper but could be had around two to three years somewhere around $2 million AAV.
After that, Jan Ruuta and Chris Wideman could be on some radars. Finally, it is a market that truly possesses some value. These would be 4-5-or 6 type defensemen who can plug holes.