Earlier tonight on the 32 Thoughts segment of Hockey Night in Canada, Elliotte Friedman added another name to the list of potential Montreal Canadiens defensemen to be moved: Shea Weber (link). Friedman believes Montreal will look to move Weber’s contract to a team that either needs long-term injured reserve room or who needs to get to the cap floor and prefers not to spend much over the next few years.
The 36-year-old Weber has not played this year, having had his playing career likely come to an end due to injury. Weber last played in the Stanley Cup Finals for Montreal against the Tampa Bay Lightning last season before being placed on long-term injured reserve this season.
What is most notable about Weber’s situation is his remaining contract terms. While he has another four years left on his contract, carrying a $7.9MM cap hit each season, he is only owed $6MM total over those four years. In other words, a team that acquires Weber would only have to pay him $6MM, despite his contract having four years at $7.9MM each year. This would be an intriguing option for a team that is looking to take on cap for their own benefit or to alleviate another team’s salary cap concerns.
Montreal may not be inclined to move Weber, however, unless the terms were in its best interests. If the Canadiens are committed to a rebuild, then they might be the exact team that could benefit from having Weber’s contract on the books in the first place. Still, this idea has only thus far been reported and a market for Weber has yet to establish itself, and could carry on into the offseason potentially.
Tampa Bay comes to mind. Hello Jacob Chychrun! Or even Claude Giroux! Who said bring back JT Miller?
The Preds cap situation will be ugly next year if Weber retires. I would imagine Poile has a plan just in case. But wouldn’t it serve his interest to get the contract?
He’s on LTIR already so I don’t see him retiring, he’d be leaving money on the table for no reason (that I can see).
Not sure if Nashville getting his contract back starts to offset the recapture $$ owed when he’s on LTIR
Seems like a no brainer for the Coyotes as they will be operating with reduced revenue the next few years playing at ASU
Exactly what I was just going to say!
This is the Coyotes covert purpose for not being moved to a profitable city.
I thought MN Wild should have done this with Zach Parise. Told him they were gonna trade him to AZ and then he was gonna get bought out (to get him to agree to the trade).
There was hardly any real cash left on his contract at the time the Wild bought him out.
I can’t imagine what the compensation would have been, not certain it would have to be all that high since the AZ owner is clearly a cheap a$$
Just out of curiosity, why would Arizona have agreed to such a deal?
Help get them above the salary cap floor without spending as much real money.
Ultimately over 8 seasons they spend $6.6M in real cash for $26M+ in cap hits.
$833K cash per year for cap hits of $6.3M, $7.3M $7.3M over 2023-2025… seasons where they’re playing in a college rink struggling to get to the cap floor.
Presumably this would be allowed by CBA but I’m not positive.