The Canadiens have the cap space, draft picks, and the prospects to use to their advantage if they want
The Fourth Period: The Montreal Canadiens enter the offseason with about $16.5 million in salary cap space.
Pending restricted free agents include Max Domi, Victor Mete, Jake Evans, Charles Hudon, Xavier Ouellet and Noah Juulsen. Pending UFAs in Dale Weise and Christian Folin aren’t expected back.
The Canadiens will need to keep in mind that they have five key free agents next offseason.
“We’ll be smart, we’ll manage our cap properly, but we’ll always look to improve our team,” he said. “If we could make our team better by moving a pick or players that we feel can make us better for a long period of time, we’ll do that.”
GM Marc Bergevin said that they’d be open to trading their first-round pick if it would help the team immediately.
Eric Engels of Sportsnet: The Montreal Canadiens are in a good spot heading into the offseason. They could use an elite scorer, and some depth on the blue line and in net. They have 14 picks in the 2020 draft, a deep prospect pool, some roster players they can afford to move, and salary cap space.
“As far as assets, yes, we have I believe 10 picks in the top three rounds in the next couple of years, we have 25 overall. So we’re set that way,” Bergevin said during his 30-minute, season-ending press conference Saturday. “We’ve put ourselves in a good position to look around. If anything becomes available, we should be looking into that… If we can make our team better by moving a pick or players that we feel can make us better for a long period of time, we’ll do that.”
Canadiens may be thinking long-term with Danault but he may not be
The Fourth Period: Montreal Canadiens forward Phillip Danault has a year left on his contract. The Canadiens appear to be interested in an extension for Danault, but he may not be thinking the same.
Danault had been centering their top line, but Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi vaulted ahead of Danault during the playoffs and he was used in a shutdown role.
“I don’t know if I’m ready to accept this,” Danault told reporters in French, as quoted by TVA Sports and translated by TFP. “I like to contribute offensively, and I know that I can still reach another level offensively. I don’t know if I want to limit myself to strictly a defensive role.”
Danault added that it would play a role in any long-term decision.