The Montreal Canadiens will have a salary cap to work with going forward… Area of need, and pending UFA Mike Matheson
TSN: After the Montreal Canadiens extended Lane Hutson, they signed a core group of six players for approximately $47 million, which is tremendous value as the salary cap tops $100 million. Chris Johnston notes that Canadiens GM Kent Hughes preached an internal cap/structure. It’s not a hard limit, but the idea that players should take a little less to build a stronger team.
Defenseman Mike Matheson is a pending UFA and believes the Canadiens will look to get a deal done. Zac Bolduc will become an RFA after this season and Ivan Demidov will be eligible for an extension next summer.
Gino Reda asks Johnston how the Canadiens will use their salary cap and what needs they have. Johnston says ideally they would add a left-handed center.
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They are in a unique position where every one of the centers on their roster is right-handed, which presents some challenges for faceoffs and other things, but Montreal has been working on that for a while. It was a market they were exploring this summer, nothing really materialized there, and if we look broadly at the NHL trade market, it’s been a bit frozen for a while.
The Canadiens will wait for teams to drop out of the race early and try to get someone out. They’ve been working with teams for a while to keep up to date on who might become available.
TSN: Pierre LeBrun said that after the extensions of Lane Hutson, Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton, an extension of Mike Matheson could be their next priority.
“They want to extend Mike Matheson. I’m told Mike Matheson and his agent are interested in that conversation. So that will happen sometime in the near future.
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The question is: where is the right place here? He is 31 years old. I don’t think he wants to sign a short-term contract. It will take four to five years before it makes sense for him. What is the AAV that makes sense for Montreal? They need something that takes over their pet culture.”
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