Canadiens’ quiet free agency to provide cap advantage for 2025
The Montreal Canadiens are in uncharted territory; for the first time in over six years, they’ve got a significant amount of real cap space and don’t need to use it.
After striking out on signing some free agents on July 1, most notably forward Jonathan Marhcessault, the Canadiens now have $9.43M in cap space.
With only Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron left to sign as restricted free agents, that number shouldn’t drop below the $6M range once all is said and done.
That kind of wiggle room not only sets up the Canadiens nicely on the trade front either this summer or at the 2025 NHL trade deadline, but it also could help out a great deal next summer.
Trade Deadline Broker
The Montreal Canadiens are expected to be more competitive next season, but, with a virtually unchanged roster, the odds aren’t expecting them to punch their ticket back to the playoffs.
If the Canadiens are on the outside looking in come March, the team will have a handful of rental options for other teams, a newly reacquired retention slot and more cap space than they’ll know what to do with.
That’s because, unlike previous years, the Habs are pegged to start the season under the salary cap and not need to put Carey Price on Long-Term Injury Reserve (LTIR) to be cap compliant this year.
So why does that impact the trade deadline?
Unlike LTIR relief space, actual cap space is accrued throughout the season and only grows as the year goes on; meaning what is $5M in cap space in October becomes close to 30M in useable cap space in March.
PuckPedia explains in more detail how that process works:
Meaning that, if things go as projected and the Montreal Canadiens begin the season with $5-6M in cap space, they could have up to 32M in deadline cap space. Thats a prime amount of collateral to wheel and deal and acquire more assets for what is expected to be a busy summer of 2025.
But there is another benefit to consider.
Performance Bonuses
The Montreal Canadiens are expected to be the third-youngest team in the NHL again next season, which could include up to nine different players on entry-level contracts (ELCs).
With the likes of Juraj Slafkovsky, Kaiden Guhle, Lane Hutson, Jayden Struble and Joshua Roy still on their entry-level contracts, and the possibility of David Reinbacher and Logan Mailloux cracking the roster; the Canadiens need to be careful.
Over the last two seasons, the Canadiens have been hit with performance bonus overage charges of over $1M on their cap structure. That happens because the Canadiens, who have been using LTIR since 2021, were over the cap and couldn’t fit the bonuses earned by their young players on their salary structure.
The NHL allows those teams to remain cap compliant within the season, but will then carry over the value of those bonuses and apply them to next season’s cap calculation.
So, for example, the Canadiens have been hit with a $1.022M bonus overage penalty for the 204-2025 season due to bonuses earned by Slafkovsky, Guhle and Struble during the 2023-2024 season.
But, because the Canadiens were over the cap last season and utilizing LTIR, they couldn’t absorb that amount and had to slide it over to this upcoming season.
Which makes having actual cap space going into the season that much more important.
With Slafkovsky in the last year of his ELC, and a handful of other promising youngsters possibly attaining their bonuses, the Canadiens would have enough flexibility to absorb the bonuses, potentially incurred in this upcoming season.
And that’s good news for the summer of 2025.
With the contracts of Christian Dvorak, David Savard, Joel Armia and Jake Evans coming off the books next summer, the Canadiens will want to maximize their spending power and not be handicapped by bonus overages like in years past.
It’ll provide them with the optimal flexibility to finally go big-game hunting, either as a cap broker via trade or make the major signing in free agency.
Either way, it appears the Canadiens have effectively moved firmly away from salary cap hell.
