Team: 2022-23 Montreal Canadiens

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 13, 2022

Published: Jul. 14, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

As it stands, a 23-men Habs roster that would include Dach on a bridge contract around 2.5M AAV, a (unlikely!) healthy Price and without using any LTIR whatsoever would amount to around 85.6M; 3.4 over the cap.

Byron, Drouin and/or Price’s recent health issues might pave the way to a (suboptimal) LTIR relief scenario during the season, but moving a +3M AAV winger with term this summer would be far more efficient, especially since the market for Petry seems rather underwhelming at the moment. Unless the market sees Petry as the consolation prize of the Klingberg sweepstakes; even then, without retention, hard to see how trading Petry this summer could fetch a worthwhile return, considering how thin the Habs are at RHD.

Obviously, shedding Hoffman’s contract would be the optimal target; Armia’s being a close second. At this point, the Habs should consider trading them with incentives (« B+ prospects » à la Struble and/or picks beyond the first 2 rounds next year) if there’s takers.

The optimized return of TDL assets traded with maximum salary retention (Dadonov, Drouin, Byron?, Allen?) and the capacity to absorb expiring UFA cap dumps in return could in all likelyhood compensate selling short on Hoffman/Armia this summer.

Besides targeting the usual suspects of Hoffman/Armia, with Dach now in the picture, could Dvorak spark enough interest to return a (presumably late) 1st 2023+ from a contender needing a cost-controlled middle-6 C? Trading a C rather than winger this summer would be far from optimal however; one more season of Dvorak would likely ease the transition of Dach and, more interestingly, Dvorak under MSL could further raise his value until the Habs’ 1st 2023 pick (hopefully) makes him naturally expandable next summer.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.