Montreal Canadiens Free Agent Strategy Hints To Offseason Plans

The Montreal Canadiens have been careful about how they spend their money of late, which will likely impact their offseason strategy.

For the first time in years, the Habs will not be going into next season right up against the salary cap or over it.

They’re currently projected to have north of $9M in actual cap space, with 20 players already signed on for next season.

However, that includes Carey Price‘s $10.5M, meaning the Canadiens could utilize up to 19.5M this summer by placing their veteran goaltender on offseason LTIR.

There could be other moves for players like Mike Hoffman, Joel Edmundson and Joel Armia to liberate move cap space down the line.

Despite this newfound flexibility, the Montreal Canadiens have already indicated that they aren’t going to be looking to take on long-term salaries or sign players in their late 20s in free agency to better the team in the short term.

“We’re going to look into signing a player or making a trade to improve this team, without sacrificing the long-term success of this team,” said general manager Kent Hughes. “If it’s just a move for this season, it’s not in the cards.”

Instead, the Canadiens will look to weaponize their cap space just like they did last summer in the Sean Monahan deal.

“If we can use our cap, like last year when we found out Carey wasn’t able to play and acquired Sean (Monahan), we will,” said Hughes regarding his offseason strategy during the Canadiens’ end-of-season press conference. “Wherever possible, we would look to use cap flexibility to our advantage, as long as it doesn’t tie us up long term. Be it taking a contract and adding prospects or picks, we’ll look into that for sure.”

The Montreal Canadiens want to use their flexibility to continue adding top-end assets like high picks or intriguing prospects to further improve their team for the long haul.

They’re very aware that the immediate future is not important, looking to continue their developmental road to eventually keep up with the increasingly competitive Atlantic Division.

“I certainly see that the Atlantic Division is going to be better. We’re mindful of it, but we’re just concentrating on what we’re doing,” said VP of Hockey Ops, Jeff Gorton, “We’re trying to get guys to improve incrementally.”

The Montreal Canadiens management team doubled down on their desire to continue to accumulate young assets and develop them for sustainable success down the line; meaning that big-time acquisitions of players over the age of 25 are pretty unlikely, outside of a cap-centric trade.

For the organization, they want to maximize its opportunity this summer, without cutting any corners and rushing the process for short-term success.

“We’re trying to build this thing the right way. If we just take shortcuts, just to be a little better, I don’t think that’s going about it the right way. Building, developing and letting it happen organically is the way to go. ”

It’s a refreshing viewpoint from a Montreal Canadiens management staff; breaking away from the yearly notion of just squeaking into the Stanley Cup Playoffs and hoping for the best.

It would be surprising to see the Canadiens go out and spend money on their own, but rather, take advantage of their rivals for some of their very bad decisions.