Montreal Canadiens Salary Cap: Examining the Habs salary in the offseason

The Montreal Canadiens missed the playoffs once again and with that, they made a few moves this summer in hopes of changing that.

The Canadiens struggled last season, but they are a young team with a core group of Cole Caufield - who signed a contract extension - Nick Suzuki, Kirby Dach and all the young defensemen they have.

To add to the core, Montreal traded for pending RFA Alex Newhook who is 22 and will play a key role for the Habs next season.

Montreal currently has $10.9 million in cap space but Newhook will likely cost 42-3 million which will bring it down to $7-8 million.

Although Newhook hasn't lived up to the expectations, head coach Martin St. Louis believes he will be better in Montreal.

"I think he’s definitely going to get an opportunity in a better chair,” affirmed Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “In Colorado, he was playing 12-13 minutes. We’re going to ask him to play more than that and he’ll be able to play a bigger role.

“You also can’t ignore the experience he gained winning (in 2022). Even if he was playing 12-13 minutes, he’s got 150 games of experience, he’s a guy who’s 22, he’s won a Stanley Cup, he’s a guy that reflects a lot of what we look for in terms of culture and style of play. He’s got pace. He’s not the biggest, but he’s still heavy. We’re trying to put him in an environment where he could show more.”

Montreal Canadiens having a mixed free agency

Even with cap space at their disposal, the Canadiens haven't been very active in free agency so far. Currently, the only player unsigned is Newhook, who GM Kent Hughes says will get done.

“Most agents are pretty busy, and as a team, we’ll prioritize some things. But from an agency perspective, if not an unrestricted free agent, they’ll generally table (negotiations) or a bit," Hughes said.

This summer, Montreal traded away defenseman Joel Edmunson to open up room for the young defensemen it has on the roster. Besides the trade, the Canadiens have signed depth players as they added forward Lias Andersson on a one-year, two-way deal, while inking two-way deals with Philippe Maillet and Brady Keeper, who will try and compete for a roster spot.

Ultimately, with the current team, it likely will be another year missing the playoffs but Montreal has cap space to do something big if it decides to.