The Montreal Canadiens may not have made any big free agent signings this offseason, but they did get a player off the books.
Allow us to explain.
Back in 2017, former Habs general manager signed defenceman Karl Alzner to a five-year, $23.125-million contract in an effort to replace defenceman Andrei Markov.
While Alzner was an attractive free agent at the time, his game fell off the tracks as soon as he hit the ice with the Canadiens that fall. As a result, the blueliner became a healthy scratch at the beginning of the 2018-19 season.
Things went from bad to worse in late November when he cleared waivers and was assigned to the Laval Rocket.
In October 2020, the Canadiens placed Alzner, who had suited up for just 95 games over three years, on unconditional waivers to buy out the remaining two years of his contract. That forced them to keep paying him long after his original contract expired.
As per CapFriendly, the first two years of Alzner’s buyout saw the player carrying a collective cap hit of approximately $6 million.
He was subsequently paid $833,333 a year for the past two seasons.
CapFriendly
While Montreal no longer has any buyouts to worry about, some dead cap is still weighing them down.
The Habs retained a sizeable portion of defenseman Jeff Petry’s salary when they briefly re-acquired him last summer before trading him to the Detroit Red Wings.
They did the same with goalie Jake Allen when he was dealt to the New Jersey Devils ahead of the 2024 trade deadline.
Collectively, Montreal will pay Petry and Allen approximately $4.4 million in 2024-25 before their respective contracts are up next July.