Steve Mason’s time with the Canadiens lasted all of a few hours. TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reports (Twitter link) that the team will place the goaltender on unconditional waivers for the purposes of buying out his contract. He had one year and $4.1MM remaining on his contract. That means that Montreal will carry a cap hit of $1.367MM in each of the next two seasons.
The 30-year-old had been acquired earlier in the day as part of a salary cap dump from Winnipeg that also saw the Canadiens acquire winger Joel Armia. This isn’t a surprising outcome as Montreal already has veteran Antti Niemi under contract to be their second-string netminder while youngster Charlie Lindgren is also on a one-way deal but will likely start in the minors once again.
Mason spent 2017-18 with Winnipeg after signing a two-year, $8.2MM contract last summer. He struggled to stay healthy as he dealt with multiple concussions and he didn’t fare particularly well when he was in the lineup, posting a below average 3.24 GAA and a .906 SV% in 13 games (12 starts). Assuming he clears waivers as expected on Sunday, he will hit the open market for the second straight summer in search of a new team.
He’s done. Too many goalies on the market ahead of him and without concussions
Wow….Bergevin walking around in the dark again. This s*** is getting old. Need a goalie? One that’s often hurt and a bad contract. Sure….take him…so I can buy him out and forfeit 1.3 million on the cap. The village idiot in Montreal strikes again.
Didn’t he take the $1.3 hit in order to get Armia?
Yup. That was the cost to get Armia….
Pretty soon the NHL/NHLPA will smarten up and allow a % that must be waived then traded in order for the buyout and not have it count against the cap. That means that other players can be paid against the cap. And that’s what it’s all about.
Or teams forfeit their last round selection if $5M is on buyout-$10M for a 6th round.
All for more money for teams to spend.
Bergevin used his cap space to essentially acquire an NHL asset(Joel Armia) as well as 2 draft picks. It was a salary dump. This is exactly the kind of move he should be doing.
The trade was a pure salary dump. In exchange for taking on Mason, the Canadiens got Armia (a solid young bottom six forward) plus two draft picks for a relatively uninspiring defensive prospect. Teams in baseball and basketball do the same exact thing. And realistically, there’s no issue with it. Most of the time these players aren’t going to get significant, if any, playing time for their new teams. In exchange for taking a little less money, these players can essentially hit FA again and pick where they want to play. I don’t know what you expected from the trade since it was widely known that Mason was going to be bought out or traded. Montreal just doesn’t need him.
Canadiens legend Steve Mason is going to go in the hockey hall of fame right next to Sharks legend Mike Hoffman.