Not much of a salary dump. More like let the two expensive guys walk. This roster does not make the playoffs at all with that roster either

montreal does not need stralman as romonov is coming over. plus that guy is terrible when he does not have the puck so they pass on him

What is the point of that trade?

Not sure what you are critiquing here.......... Are you saying ive done a poor job at reducing the cap by 10M and that making the playoffs is a viable possibility when being forced into reducing the salary by 10M?

The point was to be realistic and not trade the entire team of good players away for picks and prospects just to fit the salary cutting theme.

Romanov is a LHD and Stralman is a RHD. I brought in Stralman to play the RHD for the Habs. I think you are looking at this glass half empty rather than glass full. For a slight cap upgrade of 900K the habs are getting a better dman than Alzner. The extra salary they pay is irrelevant as the Habs are money rich team.

Florida cuts actual salary without having to include draft picks and what not, Montreal upgrades a player for a slight cap increase at a position they could use.

Florida could just buyout stralman or trade him for a pick

D..di...did you even read what I wrote? Stralman makes more money than Alzner..............Buyout the cheaper one = less money out of pocket.

Trade him for a pick? What team would trade a pick for Stralman right now? If there is a team willing to trade Stralmans full salary for a pick than by all means do that! I just don't think there is a single team that would do that. You'd have to retain salary and at a certain point the retained salary would be more costly than just buying out Alzner outright. Alzner is owed 6.5M. Stralman 11M.

No you did a fine job at cutting salary via trades, but no team that has that much cap space should really be expecting to make it far. I don’t believe when they said cutting 10Mill in cap they meant the actual cap. I think they meant like bonuses because no competent team says “let’s cut 10Mill and let our better players walk” unless they’re Eugene Melnyk.

Ahh gotcha. Well the cap "cutting" is 10M in appearence only really. Its the salary they would be talking about. Thats the actual money they have to pay the players so that is where I made the actual cuts.

Plus as I said in my description, it isn't pretty but it works. The goal was to show how they could cut the 10M from their salary and ice the best team possible. If Im off in my calculations, by all means add some depth players or maybe resign Huala but outside that, there isn't anything else that can be done. They can't trade their best players away for cheaper options and expect to be better than they were this past season. Which already wasn't in the playoffs.

they can also bring romonov's partner Alexei Marchenko who also has interest in returning to the NHL and can come at a much cheaper price. Since leaving the nhl that guy has improved significantly and his level of play with romonov is amazing. if the habs can make it work things will be interesting.

Can’t see Florida moving stralmam, apparently left money and term on the table signing with the panthers bc he really wanted to stay in Florida

Would be a dick move by the panthers after 1 year of a new deal, then again it’s the panthers are their roster moves never make sense

That is to be seen. I know everyone is hyped that Romanov is gonna come in here and play 25 mins a night and kill it but I have a feeling he'll need some adjusting. There's no guarantee that Marchenko comes and even if he did, people forget he is 28 years old. He is no prospect. Not sure playing behind Petry and Weber is the best situation for him.

Either way, Alzner is giving us zero value. We are essentially replacing Alzners uselessness with a veteran whose clearly better and although had a tough year last year, wasn't the only one. Its not a crazy idea that he has a better showing with the Habs playing less hard minutes on a new team.

Sure I guess but what is the alternative? Move Barkov? Trade Ekblad? All because they don't want to hurt Stralman's feelings? Not saying it wouldn't be a dick move but Stralman playing as bad as he did was also a dick move to the Panthers and now they need cut costs so sorry/not sorry. There is no magical fix here where no one gets hurt. Someone has to pay the piper.

I think people might be getting caught up in trying to find a way to "debunk" the validity here. I feel like I literally did the easiest, least painful, least dick movish, things possible to make the cap work for the owner based on the assumption that they want to cut approx 10M in cap from 19-20 season.

Doing anything other than what I did would entail doing way more dickish things and worsening the team in the short term way worse than I did. I don't want to toot my own horn here but I don't think there is a more simplistic but also realistic way of accomplishing it.

Montreal is content with burying Alzner in Laval and I think at this point Alzner has accepted being an over paid AHL’er and is doing a great job mentoring younger guys. If all goes well with all this time off Juulsens health improves to a point where he can play next season. Fleury isn’t far off and like mentioned perhaps Marchenko comes with Romanov. Point is Montreal has options and doesn’t need to make a move like you’re suggesting.

Other than that I think what you’ve done is good, you’ve shed the cap space and didn’t move any major pieces. If some of Florida’s young players can step in and produce then it wouldn’t shock me to see them competing for a playoff spot. No one expected CBJ to be in the position they were in this season.

its not hurting his feelings, its more of the optics....Agents will notice, players will see it, and it could make it difficult landing other UFAs from certain agents.
Those things dont go unnoticed around the league, so who knows the next time panthers want to go business with some guy in order to get the deal done they need to land them a NMC and they arent asking that from other orgs

Panthers are a mess so no moves should be off the table, I do agree with you there, and probably is the smart money move to do.

Yeah I understand the optics of it but there really isn't any other realistic options. Plus I think you may be exaggerating the optics. Stralman negotiated a M-NTC not a full NMC. If staying in Florida was paramount he could have asked for less money in return for an NMC. He chased the bigger dollars and Florida gave it to him. This is a business at the end of the day and players know this. Its not personal. After the season he had, the ownership salary restrictions, I don't think Stralman should be appalled at the idea either. We're not talking about an elite player here.

no we aren't, and it wont be a black eye to the org or anything. Just man are the partners in a bad spot with that cap and roster build. Really mismanaged that roster from where they were a few seasons ago.
I wonder if they are going in this direction to slowly transition into a Coach Q roster

I would much prefer to pay someone that much to help our NHL club than to pay it to mentor our AHL players. That mentoring can be accomplished with a couple AHL vets, Alzner is not some great mentor of hockey at the end of the day. He was a marginal top 4 defensive dman who was carried by his partners and once moved on got considerably worse.

Keep Fleury in the AHL playing big minutes, bring on Marchenko if the price is right or don't. I think people exaggerate his talent. Either way for a small increase in cap, Habs get rid of Alzner and replace him with much better dman who had a bad year but in a lesser role could be really good. Tons of experience and would be a good mentor for Romanov on the 3rd pairing while also helping reduce Weber and Petry's minutes.

Yeah def. I think they really gambled on making the playoffs this year and this pandemic really through a wrench in their plans. Got to think the owner wanted playoff revenue at all costs. Hence why having to cut salary now as it seems they won't make it even if the NHL does resume.

Ya its a rough situation.