From buyouts to salary retainment to injuries, the Montreal Canadiens are spending a sizeable amount of their budget on players who are no longer on the team.
According to Capfriendly.com, the Habs are spending a total of $15,427,083 on guys who are not in the locker room.
For context, that’s roughly 18% of the total salary cap.
Here’s exactly how that money is being spent.
Buyouts — $833,333
After joining the Habs as a free agent in 2017, defenceman Karl Alzner immediately struggled to fit into the teamās system.
He spent most of his time in the AHL and saw limited action with the NHL club. In October 2020, the Canadiens decided to buy out Alzner’s contract.
The buyout, which will conclude after this season, was structured as follows:
2020-21: $3,958,333
2021-22: $1,958,333
2022-23: $833,333
2023-24: $833,333
Salary retention — $4,093,750
In order to sweeten the pot for their trading partners, the Canadiens agreed to retain a portion of the salaries of both defencemen Joel Edmundson and Jeff Petry.
When Montreal dealt Edmundson to the Washington Capitals back in July, they agreed to take on 50% of the 30-year-old’s $3.5 million cap hit over the next season.
As for Petry, who was both re-acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins and flipped to the Detroit Red Wings in August, Montreal will retain $2,343,750 of the player’s cap $6.25 million hit.
LTIR — $10.5 million
Goalie Carey Price may not have seen much action between the pipes over the past two seasons, being placed on LTIR last August as a result of a serious knee injury that’s plagued him for years.
With that said, the 36-year-old still has two years left on an eight-year, $84 million contract he signed back in 2017.
Price’s cap hit is $10.5 million for the 2023-24 season. While LTIR status can help a team free up cap space, it can sometimes include potential overages that could impact the following seasonās cap.
Because of that, general manager Kent Hughes recently announced that he has decided not to place Price on off-season LTIR, despite the potential space it would free up.
“We lose the flexibility during the year, like last year, with all the injuries and overages, which carry into the following year,” Hughes explained when asked about the decision. “With each passing year, weāre going to be more mindful to try not to do that.ā