A trade involving Carey Price announced as early as this week? Update emerges
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MarcO
June 29, 2024 (0:54)
Photo credit: NHL
There is no doubt, Carey Price will be a Montreal Canadien for life, but his contract could change addresses soon.
Price will officially retire in the Blue-White-Red uniform, and maybe we'll see him wearing it in the Hall of Fame, but until then, Kent Hughes must seriously consider the option of trading his contract.
In a recent column for the site Montreal Hockey Now, former Canadiens employee Marc Dumont analyzed the impact of Carey Price's salary on the club's payroll. Seeing how removing his salary from the club's cap could help Kent Hughes, Dumont does not hide the importance of trading him.
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Currently, the Canadiens have nearly $17M in cap space, but Price's $10.5M can be a problem. This amount, even if placed on LTIR, is not as advantageous as you might think.
It's complex, but essentially LTIR is calculated once the cap limit is reached. By using this strategy, the team cannot accumulate daily cap space throughout the season, which limits the GM's flexibility to operate at the trade deadline.
«If the Canadiens had managed to move his contract before today, they would start the season with a $17 million cap that would generate significant gains throughout the year.
Cap space and expenses are calculated daily during the season (186 days). If a team is below the salary cap, its available cap space will increase each day.» - Marc Dumont
Carey Price (his contract) traded by Kent Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens?
Dumont's solution is to do as Hughes did with Shea Weber, which is to trade Price's contract. But now that the Coyotes are no longer under the management of Alex Meruelo, who was known for acquiring bad contracts to reach the salary floor, trading Price might be difficult.
Additionally, Price still has $11M in bonuses pending ($5.5M on July 1st). Not all teams can absorb the goalie's salary on the cap, but also his actual salary ($7.5M if we add the annual real salary of $2M).
However, the door could open for Hughes on July 2nd (next week).
Price will have then received his penultimate bonus of $5.5M, and the team taking on his contract will only have $9.5M left to pay him instead of $14M if he were traded before July 1st.
If the return for offloading Price was minimal, and Hughes might even have to add a small gift to the acquiring team, the benefits would be enormous. Imagine seeing Kent Hughes with an extra $10.5M in his pocket. He would be able to be competitive in the free agent market, an option that he and his vice-president, Jeff Gorton, seem to want to explore.
Previously on HabsFanatics
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29 JUIN | 831 ANSWERS A trade involving Carey Price announced as early as this week? Update emerges Would you trade Carey Price for future considerations? |
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