Montreal protects Price, Petry, Edmundson, Chiarot, Gallagher, Kotkaniemi, Lehkonen, Toffoli, Anderson, Drouin, and Evans.
Danault, Armia and Tatar all go to free agency. Danault returns, but Montreal would have to choose one or the other between Armia and Tatar. I like Armia a lot, but Tatar works great with Danault and Gallagher... I might suggest the 5M I would have left for him here might come up short for Tatar anyway.
Ideally Drouin stabilizes and fills a similar role on that Danault-Gallagher line, or better(Ideally, I said). So then it is down to Armia or some other UFA like Coleman, or Palmieri.
This basically leaves Weber, or Allen for Seattle to draft, of which Allen seems the most practical. Montreal can really use him, or someone like him going forward, though.
I also considered the value of a trade to keep Allen, but it probably ends up being Kotkaniemi or Suzuki + whoever they pick in exchange, which seems a hefty fee.
It is entirely possible all these guys are picked up again by their current teams, but with Mrazek and Nedeljkovic as a tandem I figured Reimer is likely to be available. Halak seems like it would be nice, though!
The main problem with this is that Montreal's roster remains almost entirely unchanged. Some players will progress, but others will keep getting older- we are treading water as a fringe team, for now.
After next season, Chiarot and Raanta come off the books, which pay for Suzuki and Romanov's extensions. I think Guhle, or Brook will fill in Chiarot's shoes to some extent, and by this point either Primeau or McNiven best be ready for full time NHL duties as well.
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Mysak,
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