At the NHL’s Board of Governors meetings this week, it was announced that the salary cap is currently projected to be $73 million for the 2015-16 season, although that number may drop with a downward-trending Canadian dollar.
The Montreal Canadiens currently have two goaltenders, four of seven defencemen, and, if you count Sven Andrighetto who is currently up with the team, ten of fourteen roster forwards under contract for next season. That leaves seven player contracts to add using approximately $15 million of remaining cap space.
Some of those spots will very likely be filled by players approaching restricted free agency whose entry-level contracts are set to expire at the end of the 2014-15 season, most notably defencemen Nathan Beaulieu (who earns an NHL salary of $925 000 this year) and Jarred Tinordi ($810 000), as well as current-roster forwards Alex Galchenyuk ($925 000) and Michaël Bournival ($650 000).
Pending unrestricted free agents who are currently under contract and could receive contract extensions for next season include defensive specialists Manny Malhotra ($850 000) and Mike Weaver ($1 750 000) and recent acquisitions Sergei Gonchar ($4 600 000) and Bryan Allen ($ 3 500 000).
Other potential roster players with contracts set to expire at the end of the season are training camp additions Eric Tangradi ($700 000) and Drayson Bowman ($575 000), as well as Hamilton Bulldogs goaltender Mike Condon ($692 500), defenceman Magnus Nygren ($925 000), and captain Gabriel Dumont ($575 000).
Data obtained from CapGeek.
A public Google spreadsheet containing this cap info and the charts these visualizations are based upon is available here.
