When the Montreal Canadiens placed Evgenii Dadonov on injured reserve yesterday, there were quite a few smirks going up around the hockey world. It was “kicking the can down the road” as Eric Engels of Sportsnet put it, opening up a roster spot by moving out a forward that wasn’t playing anyway. It avoided having to waive a player like Dadonov but doesn’t fix the root of the problem – Montreal has too many forwards.
Yesterday on TSN’s Insider Trading, Pierre LeBrun explained that the Canadiens have been trying to “create a trade market” by calling around to several teams in the league. One of those is the Washington Capitals, who lost Connor Brown to ACL surgery, but nothing is imminent between the two as the Capitals look at internal options first.
LeBrun lists Dadonov, Jonathan Drouin, and Mike Hoffman – three players who have all been healthy scratches recently – among the names that could be on the move.
Each of those three, it should be noted, come with relatively hefty contracts. Dadonov carries a $5MM cap hit this season, Drouin a $5.5MM hit, and Hoffman is at $4.5MM through next season.
With Dadonov on injured reserve, the team is currently carrying 14 forwards. Of that group, only Brendan Gallagher and Hoffman are over the age of 30, and many are 25-and-under. The team is obviously focused on moving toward their youth and away from the older generation of players, but whether they will be able to actually pull off a trade remains to be seen.
Nobody wants those 3 and Le Habs will have to eat their salary or attach a heafty sweetener AND retain salary. Monahan or Armia would be better trade candidates.
Why would they attach a sweetener? They have Cap space so their worst case is to pay them until their contracts expire. What is the point is giving up an asset to get rid of them?
You seem very new to this stuff.
The only option I see is a mutual contract termination with Dadonov and Montreal eating the money
Yep the habs will have to keep them…if they can get anything for them around the trade deadline that’s a win otherwise they will just eat the salaries cuz there’s no way they attach picks of prospects with these 3. I agree that other players like monahan could fetch a nice return( I heard about a 1st round pick being the value for him)
Monahans greatest value is at deadline…unfortunately no one will want Dadnov or Drouin…they hoped one of them could find there game again, but they haven’t and will need to be waived or trade a retain 1/2 salary
Philly has the space with LTIR to take on salary.
But that’s not montreals issue. They have cap space so they can just ride it out. Their hope is to acquire an asset for them but there is zero reason to give up prospects or picks to get rid of salary they can afford to pay.