making room for Hutson

Created by: Blazingbat11

Team: 2023-24 Montreal Canadiens

Initial Creation Date: Feb. 14, 2024

Published: Feb. 14, 2024

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Legend

Left Handed

Original Team

Waivers Exempt

Right Handed

Position

Trade Clause

Max Perf. Bonus

Expiry Status

Term Remaining

McDavid, Connor

$12,500,000 ( Performance Bonus

$250,000)

NMC

UFA - 5

Description

Injury to Harris will make it a lot easier to bring in Hutson once he's done his NCAA season. However, there will still be a logjam on D, even after trading Savard. In my lineup, there's still no room for either Barron or Mailloux (who definitely deserves a call up at this point).

Another thing to consider is that MTL should be sending all or most of their waiver exempt players back down for Laval, just to be sure they can be eligible for the AHL playoffs. It could be just a paper transaction before the deadline, but guys like Roy, Struble, Xhekaj should be sent down once the Habs season is over.

For the Savard trade, people can argue the value, but I just don't see MTL moving Savard for less, especially with retention for next season. If no team is willing to pay a similar price, I see Hughes having no issues keeping him.

Free Agent Signings

RESERVE LIST		YEARS	CAP HIT
Hutson, Lane		3	$950,000

Trades

MTL

2024 1st round pick (VGK)

VGK

Savard, David ($1,750,000 retained)

Additional Details:

Darkhorse trade deadline buyer for defensemen. AGM + another scout were at the ANA/MTL game.

Vegas still has significant LTIR pool to take Savard now, and at 50% they can easily manage him in for next season.

the 1st rd pick value is mostly coming from the retention and the fact that Vegas' pick has a very high likelihood of being in between 30-32 overall.

Buyouts

Karl Alzner: $833,333

Retained Salary Transactions

Joel Edmundson: $1,750,000 (50%)
Jeff Petry: $2,343,750 (50%)
David Savard: $1,750,000 (50%)

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2024
2025
2026

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
22	$83,500,000	$75,010,416	$1,170,000	$4,035,000	$8,489,584

Roster

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Caufield, Cole $7,850,000$7,850,000 LW, RW UFA - 8	Suzuki, Nick $7,875,000$7,875,000 C UFA - 7	Slafkovsky, Juraj $950,000$950,000 ($3,500,000$4M) RW, LW RFA - 2
Roy, Joshua $835,000$835,000 ($57,500$58K) LW, RW RFA - 3	Newhook, Alex $2,900,000$2,900,000 C, LW RFA - 4	Armia, Joel $3,400,000$3,400,000 RW, LW UFA - 2
Pearson, Tanner $3,250,000$3,250,000 LW UFA - 1	Evans, Jake $1,700,000$1,700,000 C UFA - 2	Gallagher, Brendan $6,500,000$6,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC, NMC UFA - 4
Pezzetta, Michael $812,500$812,500 LW, RW UFA - 2	Gignac, Brandon $775,000$775,000 C UFA - 2	Anderson, Josh $5,500,000$5,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 4

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Matheson, Michael $4,875,000$4,875,000 LD M-NTC UFA - 3	Guhle, Kaiden $863,333$863,333 ($420,000$420K) LD/RD RFA - 2	Montembeault, Samuel $1,000,000$1,000,000 G UFA - 1
Hutson, Lane $950,000$950,000 LD RFA - 3	Kovacevic, Johnathan $766,667$766,667 RD UFA - 2	Primeau, Cayden $890,000$890,000 G RFA - 2
Struble, Jayden $867,500$867,500 ($57,500$58K) LD RFA - 2	Xhekaj, Arber $828,333$828,333 LD/RD RFA - 1

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
Allen, Jake $1,925,000$1,925,000 G M-NTC UFA - 2	Dvorak, Christian $4,450,000$4,450,000 C M-NTC UFA - 2	Price, Carey $10,500,000$10,500,000 G NMC UFA - 3
Ylönen, Jesse $775,000$775,000 RW, LW RFA - 1	Dach, Kirby $3,362,500$3,362,500 C, RW RFA - 3
	Harvey-Pinard, Rafaël $1,100,000$1,100,000 LW, RW RFA - 2
	Wideman, Chris $762,500$762,500 RD UFA - 1
	Harris, Jordan $1,400,000$1,400,000 LD/RD RFA - 2

Special Teams

Power Play 1
Caufield, C.		Newhook, A.		Slafkovsky, J.
	Suzuki, N.		Hutson, L.

Top Comments

Feb. 14 at 9:54 a.m.

jonh514

HuGo is a Boss GM

Joined: Dec. 2021

Posts: 6,975

Likes: 3,045

I am a huge Habs supporter and a fan of David Savard, and I question the value of the trade. It's too much for a guy at the end of his career who is a warrior, but also a "toolsy" defender at best.

Feb. 14 at 9:57 a.m.

SevenLeg

Hop on the Slaftrain

Joined: Feb. 2019

Posts: 16,186

Likes: 20,496

I don’t see Savard being the casualty « to make room for Hutson ». Not the same type of defenseman at all, and they most likely want Savard around to pair with Hutson at the beginning.

Feb. 14 at 9:57 a.m.

Chuck54

ChuckHabs54

Joined: Jun. 2023

Posts: 329

Likes: 131

I dont think trade savard create space for hutson
LD
1.Mathesson
2.Ghule
3.Struble
4.Xhekaj
5.Hutson
6.Engstrom
7.Trudeau

RD (without Savard)
Kovacevic
Barron
Mailloux
Reinbacher
Konyuchkov ( not before 2026 )

Feb. 14 at 10:18 a.m.

Campabee

Joined: Nov. 2018

Posts: 15,518

Likes: 6,442

If we are making room for Hutson, then Struble is Laval bound. I am projecting a D lineup of

Matheson-Guhle
Hutson-Savard
Xhekaj-Kovacevic
If Harris is healthy be the TDL then he will be traded or the 7th D man, if not then Struble stays up as the 7th D man to rotate in and out with Kovacevic

Feb. 14 at 10:22 a.m.

Blazingbat11

Molson beer is meh

Joined: Jan. 2017

Posts: 3,833

Likes: 1,753

Quoting: SevenLeg

I don’t see Savard being the casualty « to make room for Hutson ». Not the same type of defenseman at all, and they most likely want Savard around to pair with Hutson at the beginning.

Quoting: Chuck54

I dont think trade savard create space for hutson

I agree from a utilization perspective. This is more a numbers game, you can only dress so many defensemen. And as I wrote in my description, there's still Barron and Mailloux on the outside looking in, even with the Harris injury AND the hypothetical Savard trade.

I did another ACGM a while back where I discussed preferring to keep Savard, but with the trade "rumors" surrounding him (with teams maybe focusing on him after Tanev gets moved), if a 1st rd pick is on the table, it would be hard to say no that deal. Not only that, Habs already have a perfect replacement for him with Kovacevic, who's really underrated imo.

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