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As it stands the Habs still need to find some scoring help and some defensive depth, and their first chance to address the holes in the roster will come on July 1, the first day of free agency.
We don't know exactly what the salary cap will be next season, but it's starting to look as if it should be somewhere in the realm of $71M.
NHLPA met this week, and it sounds like the players, after crunching the numbers, will consider using their full 5% growth factor.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 4, 2015
That's not a guarantee, but it is a positive shift from what they were thinking. If that happens, cap probably comes in a little over $71M
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 4, 2015
Which means the Canadiens have roughly $4.5M available, not counting the eventual raise that Alex Galchenyuk will receive. Seeing as he's likely headed for a bridge contract, we can safely estimate that his shortened deal will be in the realm of $2.5M per season, leaving a touch over $2M in cap space.
That's not exactly a very flexible figure, especially if the Habs have any intentions of re-signing Brian Flynn. That being said, there's definitely the possibility of moving some hefty contracts to accommodate a potential free-agent signing.
There's also the issue of a lack of legitimate targets, as the upcoming free-agent class is rather weak.
| Player | Age | Pos | GP | G | A | CF% | SCF% | 2015 AAV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justin Williams | 33 | RW | 81 | 18 | 23 | 57.29 | 55.08 | $3.65M |
| Joel Ward | 34 | RW | 82 | 19 | 15 | 50.11 | 51.79 | $3M |
| Antoine Vermette | 32 | C | 82 | 13 | 25 | 47.76 | 45.95 | $3.75M |
| Michael Frolik | 27 | RW | 82 | 19 | 23 | 55.15 | 54.26 | $3.3M |
| Martin St.Louis | 40 | RW | 74 | 21 | 31 | 47.56 | 49.01 | $5.625M |
| Matt Beleskey | 27 | LW | 65 | 22 | 10 | 54 | 54.26 | $1.35M |
| Carl Soderberg | 29 | C | 82 | 13 | 31 | 51.35 | 52.41 | $1M |
| Mike Ribeiro | 35 | C | 82 | 15 | 47 | 57.13 | 57.35 | $1.05M |
| Martin Erat | 33 | RW | 79 | 9 | 23 | 53.20 | 50.32 | $4.5M |
| Tomas Fleischmann | 31 | LW | 66 | 8 | 19 | 52.13 | 53.55 | $4.5M |
| Chris Stewart | 27 | RW | 81 | 14 | 22 | 39.31 | 38.52 | $4.15M |
| Curtis Glencross | 32 | LW | 71 | 13 | 22 | 45.73 | 46.44 | $2.55M |
| Shawn Matthias | 27 | C | 78 | 18 | 9 | 47.5 | 47.32 | $1.75M |
| Drew Stafford | 29 | RW | 76 | 18 | 25 | 41.3 | 39.58 | $4M |
(Corsi For % and Scoring Chances For% are 5 vs 5 only, sourced from war-on-ice.com)
As you can appreciate, it's not exactly a banner year in terms of available free agents, however there are some talented players available. With free agency quickly approaching, we'll start to take an in-depth look at some of the possible targets in the upcoming weeks.
Is there anyone on the list that you'd like to see join the Habs? Let us know in the comments below.