Montreal Canadiens

Montreal Canadiens Ready to Pounce With Cap Flexibility

Could the Montreal Canadiens see a golden opportunity coming out of this NHL pause and with money available to spend?

by
NHL Trade Talk
April 14, 2020

Arpon Basu and Marc Antoine Godin of The Athletic [subscription required] took an extended glimpse at the Montreal Canadiens and their potential plans for the offseason. Among the things they examined was a potentially flat salary cap during a time where the Montreal Canadiens have some money to play with.

Noting that this might be the prime opportunity for the Canadiens to finally spend a little money, there’s an opportunity for the organization to take advantage of teams who don’t have their cap flexibility. It’s a notion that Candiens head coach, Claude Julien seems to agree with.

He explained:

“This is a question Marc (Bergevin) would probably be more comfortable answering than me, but I would say with the cap situation we have right now, we have cap space on our side. And I know if we were to ever run into a problem, there are many teams around the league who will have far more serious problems than we will. I’m thinking of teams who are at the cap right now and have much more difficult situations to manage. So, I think in our situation, where Marc has left the team with space under the salary cap, we’re in a good position.”

If the Canadiens can identify their needs, then find a way to target teams that are going to struggle fitting in pieces, there’s a chance they can swoop in and be a hero with benefits. So too, recent reports suggest some teams might come out of this NHL pause in dire straits financially. The Canadiens might be wise to look at clubs like the Ottawa Senators, Arizona Coyotes, or Florida Panthers and see if there aren’t some players available, who if moved would help these teams cut costs.

What About Potential Trades?

Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon wonders if the Canadiens might swap a forward, such as pending RFA Max Domi, for a defenseman. In any other situation, this could make sense. But, as Montreal realizes the flexible position they’re in, they might not need to move such a piece.

There will be teams ready to dump salaries and in a club like Montreal is willing to take salary on, that may be all that’s required to get a deal done.