Making room for Rocket players stealing jobs

Created by: jonh514

Team: 2024-25 Montreal Canadiens

Initial Creation Date: Mar. 10, 2024

Published: Mar. 10, 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

The Habs have a logjam of middling players on the Blueline and at Forward.

At the same time there are some Rocket players distinguishing themselves who deserve a real shot in the NHL.

It's a tough balance to strike, but at the minimum the Habs have to make a spot for Gignac & Mailloux to at least start the season in the NHL. They are the 2 best Rocket players right now, and they are only with the Rocket right now to try and help them make the post-season.

So who stays and who goes? Here's how I see things...

Free Agent Signings

RFA	YEARS	CAP HIT
Barron, Justin	2	$1,400,000
Xhekaj, Arber	2	$1,400,000
Andersson, Lias	1	$775,000

Trades

MTL

ANA

Armia, Joel

Additional Details:

Armia has been CONSISTENT for the entire season after being shipped to Laval to start the year. He is honestly playing better than Gallagher & Anderson (who have immovable contracts). Seeing as how he will be on an expiring deal, here's hoping he does enough between now and the end of the year to get moved to a team without costing the Habs any picks.

Anywhere for anything

MTL

ANA

Ylönen, Jesse [RFA Rights]

Additional Details:

He has squandered his opportunity this year. Habs might not even resign him and just let him go to UFA. Ideally they get like a 5th for him.

Anywhere for anything.

MTL

Anywhere for a 3rd round pick or a prospect with legit NHL upside.

ANA

Evans, Jake

Additional Details:

I love this player. I think he's the perfect bottom 6 guy. He wins FOs, he puts up 20-30 pts like clockwork, and he never causes any drama.

I think a contender will pick him up to strengthen their bottom 6.

Ideally I would like to hold him, but between Dvorak & Evans, teams are more likely to cover Evans, and we need to make some room.

MTL

Anywhere for a 3rd

ANA

Kovacevic, Johnathan

Additional Details:

Like a lot of you, I like Kovacevic. He's exactly as advertised: Big shutdown bottom pair defender on a league minimum contract. I thought a lot about trading Barron and keeping him, but honestly Barron still has upside and Kovacevic is what he is. He'll be easy to move and should net a nice pick in return.

Retained Salary Transactions

Jeff Petry: $2,343,750 (50%)
Jake Allen: $1,925,000 (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
23	$87,500,000	$68,197,083	$1,022,500	$3,977,500	$19,302,917

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Caufield, Cole $7,850,000$7,850,000 LW, RW UFA - 7	Suzuki, Nick $7,875,000$7,875,000 C UFA - 6	Slafkovsky, Juraj $950,000$950,000 ($3,500,000$4M) RW, LW RFA - 1
Newhook, Alex $2,900,000$2,900,000 C, LW RFA - 3	Dach, Kirby $3,362,500$3,362,500 C, RW RFA - 2	Roy, Joshua $835,000$835,000 LW, RW RFA - 2
Harvey-Pinard, Rafaël $1,100,000$1,100,000 LW, RW RFA - 1	Dvorak, Christian $4,450,000$4,450,000 C M-NTC UFA - 1	Anderson, Josh $5,500,000$5,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 3
Andersson, Lias $775,000$775,000 C, LW RFA	Gignac, Brandon $775,000$775,000 C UFA - 1	Gallagher, Brendan $6,500,000$6,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC, NMC UFA - 3
Pezzetta, Michael $812,500$812,500 LW, RW UFA - 1

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Matheson, Michael $4,875,000$4,875,000 LD M-NTC UFA - 2	Guhle, Kaiden $863,333$863,333 ($420,000$420K) LD/RD RFA - 1	Montembeault, Samuel $3,150,000$3,150,000 G UFA - 3
Struble, Jayden $867,500$867,500 ($57,500$58K) LD RFA - 1	Savard, David $3,500,000$3,500,000 RD UFA - 1	Primeau, Cayden $890,000$890,000 G RFA - 1
Xhekaj, Arber $1,400,000$1,400,000 LD/RD RFA	Mailloux, Logan $875,000$875,000 RD RFA - 2
Harris, Jordan $1,400,000$1,400,000 LD/RD RFA - 1	Barron, Justin $1,400,000$1,400,000 RD RFA

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
		Price, Carey $10,500,000$10,500,000 G NMC UFA - 2

Top Comments

Mar. 10 at 3:36 p.m.

drambui

Joined: Feb. 2022

Posts: 3,825

Likes: 2,509

keep evans and trade him at the deadline. you can put gignac on 4th line wings and remove lias andersson.

jonh514 liked this.

Mar. 10 at 3:45 p.m.

Chuck54

ChuckHabs54

Joined: Jun. 2023

Posts: 332

Likes: 131

It's not the optimal scenario but a realistic one !
Make sens for me

jonh514 liked this.

Mar. 10 at 3:47 p.m.

my_name_is_Fil

Joined: Nov. 2023

Posts: 870

Likes: 288

that all looks plausible but i think armia gets the same as the rest. a third. ish

jonh514 liked this.

Mar. 10 at 3:59 p.m.

jonh514

HuGo is a Boss GM

Joined: Dec. 2021

Posts: 6,998

Likes: 3,055

Quoting: my_name_is_Fil

that all looks plausible but i think armia gets the same as the rest. a third. ish

I really doubt it, but maybe...

Mar. 10 at 4:35 p.m.

Shanesaw9

Habs 2010

Joined: May 2020

Posts: 1,542

Likes: 969

Edited Mar. 10 at 4:40 p.m.

Personally, I think MTL needs more depth, rather than trading depth to bring AHL'rs up. Injuries happen, especially to this team.

Slafkovsky - Suzuki - Caufield
Newhook* - Top6Forward - Dach*
Roy - Dvorak* - Armia
RHP* - Evans - Anderson
Pezzetta - Gallagher

Matheson - Barron
Guhle - Kovacevic
Xhekaj* - Savard*
Harris*

* indicates players that have missed significant time with an injury this season. You need to have depth in Laval to replace these guys and Laval needs players too so they aren't wiped out when MTL takes them.

I would not have Andersson and Gignac penciled in as forwards to make the team out of training camp next season. MTL should probably try to clear one spot on defence though, Struble Hutson and Mailloux are probably all ready for NHL action. I would not carry 8 defenseman as you did, young guys are better off playing significant roles in Laval than being 7th or 8th defenseman.

Edit: Plus you want a competitive training camp, you want guys challenging for jobs.

jonh514 liked this.

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Making room for Rocket players stealing jobs

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Description

Free Agent Signings

Trades

MTL

ANA

MTL

ANA

MTL

ANA

MTL

ANA

Retained Salary Transactions

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