Since we looked at the Montreal Canadiens’ salary cap situation just before free agency began, the team has signed several players, including a few of their own restricted free agents. With the additions of Xavier Ouellet and Matthew Peca, the return of Tomas Plekanec, and extensions for Joel Armia, Jacob de la Rose, and, most recently, Phillip Danault, this is how the team currently stands.
Danault has a very reasonable cap hit, especially considering the role he has been, and will be, expected to play. He’s currently only the sixth-highest-paid forward, and part of a forward group comprised of players with similar deals.
Some of these players won’t actually be on the roster once the season begins: Shea Weber, Paul Byron, and Andrew Shaw are expected ot miss time at the start of the year. The forwards faced a six-month recovery period after surgeries in mid- to late-April, so it won’t be long after the season begins that their returns will force a few moves.
The roster in the graphic above holds 26 players, with two goaltenders (plus the buyout amount for Steve Mason), nine defencemen, and 15 forwards. Not a single one of those forwards can be assigned to the AHL without first going through waivers.
The Canadiens currently have around $7.8 million in free space — just about exactly what Weber’s cap hit is — which can be used in a trade to take on more salary than they give up, sign more players (the active roster still needs to be at 23 for the start of the season), or hang onto it for in-season moves.
Salary cap data via CapFriendly
