Gainey Should Have More To Work With

The Montreal Canadiens should have more room to work with next season as the salary cap is expected to increase to 56.3 million.

Bob Gainey–general manager of the Habs–will have 10 million more to work with next season in cap room, not to mention the salaries of Christobal Huet–2,750,00–Michael Ryder–2,950,000– for a total of 5,700,000. Being that the Habs were already 4 million under the current cap, if the cap rises to 56.3 million the Canadiens will be 10 million under the cap, factor in the 5,700,000 that they will not be paying to players this season and that is 15,700,000.

Add in player which the Habs were still paying for like Garth Murray being paid a little over 500,000, and it’s even more.

Mathieu Dandenault has voiced his unhappiness at playing so little last season, and it would seem that he no longer has a place with the team. If the Canadiens chose to buy Dandenault out of the remaining year of his contract they will still save money. It’s not ridiculous to suggest that the Habs might have over 16,000,000 to work with for next season.

To that 16,000,000 factor in that if the Habs chose to keep Brian Smolinski–who becomes an un-restricted free agent July 1,–which it appears that they won’t, then they would most certainly sign him for less next season as this season his salary was 2,000,000. What would they offer a player who’s best days are behind him? Perhaps between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000, there would be more money saved. The Habs would be better suited to not tender a contract to Smolinski and save all of the 2,000,000, Smolinski is a nice guy and did help out in a minor way, but aren’t there any players in the minors who couldn’t be any worse? The Habs would be better off trading for, or bringing up someone to replace Smolinski.

Let’s presume for arguments sake that the Habs will have between 16,000,000 and 18,000,000 to work with. Even if the Habs re-sign RFA’s like Ryan O’Byrne, Josh Gorges, Corey Locke, Maxim Lapierre, Mikhail Grabovski, Jaroslav Halak and Andrie Kostitsyn, they won’t bust the bank. First off there is no-one who could say out of those 7 RFA’s who will return. Andrei Kostitsyn has been rumoured to have listened to an offer from the Russian Elite League. Halak wasn’t happy with his playing time last year, and wants to play more than 25 games next season. Mikhail Grabovski pulled a disappearing act in Phoenix last season when the coach didn’t play him, so in reality who will be back?

Let’s presume that they all will, Lapierre who made 562,000 last season won’t be making much more, let’s say 700,000. O’Byrne is still too young and didn’t play much, his salary was 590,000, so let’s say 800,000. Gorges played well especially after the mid-way point of the year, his salary was 495,000, so let’s say 1-1.5 million. Locke has almost never played for the Habs, his salary was 495,000, let’s say 6-7,00,000 for him. Andrei Kostitsyn will be the most expensive signing as he made 612,000 last year and with his 26 goals, 27 assists for 53 points and a +15 rating in the regular season to go with his 8 points in 12 games in the play-offs, he will most likely make 1.5-2,000,000 next season. There is Halak who made 500,000 last season, he would be looking for something between 1.5-2,000,000 as well. Lastly Grabovski who made 700,000 last season will probably go up to 900,000 or 1,000,000.

If, and that’s a big if all those RFA’s end up being signed by the Habs next season, taking into account the highest numbers that I provided, the Habs would be looking at 7,700,000. Now these numbers are an approximation, and could either go up or down, but these numbers only work if the Canadiens keep all their RFA’s, which they might not. Let’s round it off to 7,000,000, if the Habs have between 16-18,000,000 to work with then they will have 11,000,000 after they sign all their RFA’s–if they keep them all–and would be able to attract a nice high profile free agent, or two.

Yes the Canadiens have some players to sign 2009-10 season as well but the cap will probably rise again, and they might not keep all those players either.

For the sake of argument the Habs are in good position this year, even if they chose to keep all their RFA’s. Let’s hope that the brains–Bob Gainey–behind the Habs will use his money wisely and help get the Habs closer to what hasn’t been here in 15 years.