Building For The Cup
The Canadiens having traded Jose Theodore have some cap room to work with but they also have several key players to re-sign.
As soon as the season ends their roster will look like this:
Alex Kovalev – 4.5 million
Saku Koivu – 4.75 million
Craig Rivet – 2.66 million
Radek Bonk – 2.4 million
Sheldon Souray – 2.34 million
Richard Zednik – 1.97 million
Mathieu Dandenault – 1.7 million
Andrei Markov – 2 million
For a total of 8 players at – 22.32 million
Leaving Montreal with a potential 23.68 million to spend depending on how much the cap raises
Montreal MUST re-sign several players:
Michael Ryder – should sign between 2-3 million
Chris Higgins – should sign for 1 million
Alexander Perezhogin – should sign for between 700 000 and 1 million
Steve Begin – should sign for around 800 000
Cristobal Huet – should sign for between 2-4 million (depending on how far the Canadiens go in the playoffs)
The salaries of these players average out to around – 8.2 million for 5 players giving the Canadiens a 13 player roster, therefore they have a remaining 15.48 million
I don’t see Montreal re-signing David Aebischer, therefore I believe he will be traded early on in the offseason…Richard Zednik also has to go and if Gainey is thinking he will also send Ribeiro packing.
Potential players that Montreal should look at include Teemu Selanne…Him and Koivu were awesome at the Olympics why not reunite them and recreate that magic. Gainey should lock him up for 9 million over 3 years, therefore he will be here for the rest of his career. And why not give Burke a call and inquire about Andy McDonald…he work’s his ass off every night and deserves a nice contract and to put him alongside koivu and selanne could be the perfect line. The habs have a lot of prospects to offer the ducks and burke may just be interested. They would then have to sign him and he should be earning around 3 million a year as well.
Montreal should also consider bringing Latendresse up and playing him next to bonk as they produced outstanding numbers together in the preseason and maybe he’s what bonk needs to get going and back into his ottawa form. I think Danis is ready to come up and play as a backup behind Huet and then in a few years give that starting role to future star Carey Price.
Montreal also needs to look for some defense and maybe re-signing bouillon will be necessary.
The lineup next year could really end up looking like anything but here’s what I would like to see.
Higgins Koivu Selanne
Kovalev McDonald Ryder
Latendresse Bonk Perezhogin
Begin Plekanec Kotsitsyn
Souray Bouillon
Komisarek Markov
Rivet (Gainey will acquire a defenseman this offseason)
Huet
Danis
Looks like a pretty strong team to me…let me know what you think…