Canadiens Trade Activity Could Be Limited By New NHL Ruling

The Montreal Canadiens’ efforts to trade Sean Monahan may have taken another hit, as the NHL has introduced a new ruling against salary cap circumvention.

The Canadiens have yet to give an update on Sean Monahan’s health, but the expectation is that he will remain out for some timeSean Monahan‘s health, but the expectation is that he’s going to remain out for some time yet.

That’s usually not a problem, as players on LTIR can often be traded, as long as said player is ready in time for the NHL playoffs.

The reason for that is due to the salary cap ceasing to be imposed after the end of the season.

As we have seen in the past with teams like the Chicago Blackhawks and most recently with the Tampa Bay Lightning, star players Patrick Kane and Nikita Kucherov were kept out until the end of the season, to allow their teams to add players using the relief space gained from being put on LTIR.

It’s one of the reasons the Lightning were $18M over the salary cap, as Kucherov’s $9.5M cap hit was put on LTIR, allowing the Lightning to keep their roster in tact all season and add players like David Savard at the NHL Trade Deadline.

By the time Kucherov was ready to play in the playoffs, all bets were off, and the Lightning iced a roster that earned over $90M in actual salary, because Kuchrov stayed out until the end of the regular season.

To try and get ahead of it this year, the NHL has sent out a memo to teams that are acquiring players on LTIR for the purpose of activating them after the conclusion of the NHL season will be viewed as cap circumvention.

Here’s where it impacts the Montreal Canadiens.

The NHL released a memo to teams this morning saying that it will "closely scrutinize" trades where injured players are acquired with the intent of keeping them on LTIR until the playoffs.

This could impact the market for players like Nyquist, Monahan, Henrique, etc.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) February 28, 2023

Monahan Situation

On a recent segment of 32 Thoughts, NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman broke down the situation with Monahan, indicating that there still is hope for the Canadiens.

“I think it’s possible he could be out for a while. It might not knock him out for the entire season, but it could knock him out for a little bit,” said Friedman regarding Monahan’s situation. “It’s a situation where a team will try to add him and hopes that he could get healthy sometime around the playoffs.”

The Habs could have had an easier time trading Monahan to a contending team if he were to remain out for the remainder of the season, as he could have been moved and incorporated within the acquiring club’s LTIR pool.

If the NHL is now monitoring these kinds of trades, it means that Monahan will have to be healthy before the start of the NHL playoffs for the Canadiens to trade him without scrutiny from the league.

The Canadiens were likely banking on trading Monahan; being initially propped up as their best trading chip prior to his lower-body injury.

If there was hope of him being able to play in the playoffs, the Canadiens could have hoped to trade him for a conditional pick.

Depending on the riggidity of the NHL, the Canadiens basically have two options:

1. Monahan returns to health before the NHL playoffs and is traded to a contender
2. Monahan is ruled out for the season with his injury, only set to return in mid-April or later.

The only exception would likely be if a player had a setback during the rehab process.

It’s a frankly silly notion for the NHL to be clamping down on this with a few days before the NHL Trade Deadline, as the Board of Governors had voted against changing the rules regarding LTIR.

It puts the Montreal Canadiens in further of a bind with Monahan, as any possibility of moving the 28-year-old veteran now lies entirely on his health and his ability to return to play prior to the end of the season.