Canadians Lose Price But Gain Cap Flexibility To Continue Long Term Construction

Not only did the Canadiens general manager also say the only place for Price to start in Montreal would be on the team’s long-term injury list, but he added that it’s unlikely Price will play at all next season. And Hughes didn’t say Price will never suit up for another NHL game again. “I think if Carey is going to come back, he’s going to need surgery,” Hughes confirmed. You have to think if Price was willing to go down that road, he would have already taken his first steps on it. His last game was on April 30 — a 37-save performance to help the Canadiens to a 10-2 victory over the Florida Panthers — and he had plenty of time to undergo surgery after PRP injections in June failed to correct the swelling he had been experiencing in his knee. Who could blame Price, who turned 35 on Tuesday, for not wanting to? Who would blame him for not wanting to go through all that pain with no assurance that he will return to play at the level he expects of himself? And even if Price felt the outcome of another procedure would save his career, who could blame him for not wanting to do it right now to play for these Canadiens, who are as far from offering the only thing you still care to play? Price wants the Stanley Cup and Hughes is still in the early stages of preparing the Canadiens to finally claim the cup. On Thursday, GM was willing to take the full brunt of Monahan’s $6.375 million hit — despite the Canadiens being so limited that Price’s inevitable LTIR placement is practically a necessity to make the numbers work — only and only to get his hands on the future asset that goes with it. He helped Calgary clear cap space to sign Nazem Kadri to a seven-year, $49 million contract and wanted a first-round pick in 2023 to do it. He settled on the option to have one in 2024, and in the end, he may well be willing to take that one in 2025 because it will be at least that long before the Canadians settle into their competitive window. The price is not that long. It’s tragic, considering the career he had. He’s the winningest goaltender in Canadiens history, arguably the best goaltender of his generation, an Olympian, a player who’s given his all since being drafted fifth overall in Montreal in 2005, and he deserved to go out on his own terms instead of to be forced to the sidelines due to injury. But Price can’t go on like this, and neither can the Canadians. They are moving forward, inherently focused on their long-term future and in need of financial flexibility. His contract earned $10.5 million in each of the next four seasons, and would be especially crippling (even as of this summer, with contracts still owed to Kirby Dach and Cayden Primeau, and certainly by next summer with Cole Caufield due to extension) if he remained on the cap while unable to play anywhere near his peak. For a player as proud as Price — someone who has consistently used the words “acceptable standard” to explain what he’d like to achieve in order to continue pushing through pain to play — eating up only valuable Montreal cap space isn’t it would be appetizing. . He’ll come to training camp in the fall, go through his physical, and then we’ll have more clarity on what his long-term future holds. “At that time, we will probably have other media with Carey and myself and one or more of the doctors,” Hughes said. And then the Canadiens will move on, with another first-round pick added to those that came in the first few months of Hughes’ tenure, and with Monaghan bolstering the center line in the short term. It’s a plus, too, in the final season of a seven-year deal that injuries have kept him out of since 2018. The 27-year-old will undergo a second hip operation starting in 2021 and, for the first time in a long time, feeling like he can contribute in a way which he could not for a long time. “I think this summer is a big one for me,” Monahan said on a Zoom conference call hours after Hughes spoke on Thursday. “I had the surgery earlier than I did last year, so I’ve been doing a lot of work this summer and right now I’m back on the ice four times a week. It’s been a long time to get healthy, so I’m excited to be playing hockey at a high level again and I’m really excited to join the Canadiens.” He may never again be at the same level he once was in this league, but if Monaghan can be the player who amassed most of his 212 goals and 462 points in the first 460 games of his 656-game career, he can to help isolate Nick Suzuki, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans, Dach and also give the Canadiens a very healthy market return until the next trade deadline. It’s a calculated move on Hughes’ part, regardless of when that first-round pick he acquired from Calgary turns out to be right. According to Flames GM Brad Treliving, the grueling conditions on this pick were put in place to minimize the risk to his team and maximize the reward for the Canadiens for fully taking on Monahan’s contract. “You really hate (trading a first-round pick to move a contract),” Treliving said, “But when there’s no (salary cap) space, you’ve got to find space.” The Canadians had it and used it to their advantage. Unfortunately, they were there because Price won’t be able to play this season and may never be able to play again.

title: “Canadians Lose Price But Gain Cap Flexibility To Continue Long Term Construction Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-14” author: “John Messenger”

title: “Canadians Lose Price But Gain Cap Flexibility To Continue Long Term Construction Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-17” author: “Stanley Deshong”

title: “Canadians Lose Price But Gain Cap Flexibility To Continue Long Term Construction Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-07” author: “Lourdes Longsdorf”