Trades with VGK COL and WIN - Best use of cap space

Team: 2019-20 Montreal Canadiens

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 21, 2019

Published: Jul. 21, 2019

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

I know this is not realistic, but think about it. An effort was made to think about the other teams' needs.

First of all, it makes sense for Vegas to get rid of those 3 contracts, since they're in cap trouble and want to sign Gusev and Schuldt. They also don't have many defensemen and Folin-Sklenicka might help them. Half of their salary is retained, so it helps them more. For MTL, we have cap space for the next year, so it's a good fit for us.

Then, Colorado is in a good way to perform well in the next few years, so they do not desesperately need 2020 first pick. With half-price-Tatar and Armia, they add punch on their middle-6, and MTL also adds three late picks.

Finally, to pay Laine (9M), Connor (6.5M), Copp (2M) and Pionk (3M), they'll need cap space. Their top-6 is already stacked, but they don't really have 4th line guys. Hudon and Peca might help them at half-cap. Kulak is better than Kulikov and cost much less. MTL retains a part of the salary, and adds a 2nd and a 4th, but takes WIN 1st pick.

What I like about this team is that the young players have the place they deserve, the 4th line is composed of 4th-liners and not by Byron/Poehling/Suzuki/Armia/Lehkonen like I see in other posts, the cap is respected and the long-term cap is in a really good situation since Reaves, Thompson, Holden, Clarkson, Kulikov and Weise contracts expire in 2020. This situation gives MTL more than 25M$ to sign Domi (8M), Juulsen (2M), Mete (3M) and some other good players available.

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