Trade attention has once again zoned in on Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price as the league announces changes to the use of long-term injured reserve and salary cap in the postseason. The future Hall-of-Fame goaltender hasn’t played since 2021, after undergoing meniscus surgery to address a severe knee injury. Montreal has kept him on LTIR, and thus received full relief from his $10.5MM cap hit, in each of the three seasons since. That cap hit and LTIR relief could each be beneficial for teams across the league, but Canadiens’ general manager Kent Hughes told Sportsnet’s Eric Engels that he’s in no rush to find a deal. Hughes said:
We don’t have to trade Carey Price… If we can find a trade to move his contract that makes sense for us and makes sense for another team, we’ll pursue it. But we don’t have to.
The Canadiens are currently $5.93MM over the salary cap, per PuckPedia. Placing Price back on LTIR at the start of the season will bring them up to roughly $4.57MM in cap space, more than enough for next season. That cap relief underlines Hughes’ sentiment of not needing a deal, and would likely force Montreal to bring back another long-term injury in any Price trade. They could balance their budget by swapping Price for a player like Logan Couture from the San Jose Sharks, or even by acquiring Shea Weber’s contract from the Chicago Blackhawks. Both teams sit roughly $6MM over the salary cap floor as things stand, and could get a hardier budget by paying up for Price’s contract.
As for what Montreal could expect in return, the list of comparable IR moves has run a bit thin. Montreal used Weber’s contract to acquire NHL winger Evgenii Dadonov from the Vegas Golden Knights in 2022. He’s moved multiple times since – most recently in a trade to Chicago alongside minor-leaguer Aku Raty and the rights to Victor Soderstrom in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick.
In the year prior to Weber’s original move to Vegas, Chicago used Brent Seabrook’s contract to acquire NHL forward Tyler Johnson and a second-round pick. That could be a better structure to hope for – though it’s hard to gauge if the market remains the same four years later, and with the changes to LTIR. With no rush to make a deal, Montreal will have the luxury of sitting back until a strong offer comes through.
Rust or Rakell for a 1st, 3rd and Price, who says no?
A 1st for the winger and a 3rd for eating Price’s contract. Moving out the salary of Rust (or Rakell) allows the Pens to take the contract of Price while moving the contract of Price allows the Habs to add to their top 6.
They don’t want wingers they want number 2 center
I feel like Pittsburg would say no. I feel they could get more value for Rust or Rakell.
The Habs wouldn’t even listen once the 1st was mentioned. The phone would be hung up. Price carries a 2.5M cost to the acquiring team with a 10.5 hit. They’re doing a team below the cap a favor trading him to them. As the article mentions, they’ll sit back and wait and get a positive return, not pay to move his contract.
They can bury his contract themselves and gain the space, or move him for a profit. Like they did with Weber.
Montreal needs a couple of centers, Evan’s is a 4, Bolduc, Is a winger, Suzuki is a 2, Dach, Useless!
We dont need to move anybody
Ideally we could use a LH Center
But by the numbers we can cover our 4500 draws we average
Its just all Righties outside Veleno and Newhook which is an issue IMO
But not the end of the world, Evans can handle draws vs both sides
That said we’d be averaging around 49% maybe 50% win rate with those Centers.
Ideally it’d be nice to upgrade but its not needed before the TDL anyways
2C would be nice but Hage’s basically here in 7 months
We need to focus on establishing Newhook in his first year starting as Center since COL.
He’s no Drouin but he is no Drouin either. Newhook projects IMO similar to Evans as a Center.
Ideal? maybe not but i see Evans as a versatile 200ft bottom 9 forward similar to Byron in his ability to be basically a swiss army knife finding chemistry with anyone .
Bolduc-Newhook-Gally could yield big results
Bolduc has been working on his Draws and can share duties
If Newhook can take another step forward this year consistency wise, this could be big.
Veleno-Evans-Anderson is equally capable and exciting
this allows both bottom pairs to handle bulk faceoffs with Suzuki
It would allows a Dach who’s really weak at faceoffs , like worse then Galchenyuk or KK in MTL.
It also would allow a Hage to walk into the position to end the season or more likely the next year
Sure upgrading Dach is ideal but not needed
Beyond Hage there is Florian Xhekaj who might just take a job at Camp
But IMO will get sent down cause he’s the #1 AHL teams top 6 Center and The AHL coach of the years favorite prospect to talk about and who he thinks is likely to make the team at camp. Florian is Big, A Pest and controls the Faceoff area along with everyone in it.