On Wednesday, Eric Engels of Sportsnet released an article on a 20-minute conversation he had with Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes ahead of Tuesday’s annual Coach and GM meetings held this year in Detroit. Engels got to speak with Hughes about the Canadiens’ current cap situation of being around $6 million above the cap and the rumors surrounding a trade of Carey Price’s contract. As well as other topics surrounding the team this summer.
Hughes mentioned to Engels that while he is looking to find ways to get cap compliant before training camp, it doesn’t mean that the solution (Carey Price trade) will happen, as things mostly don’t occur right when you want them to in the NHL. This is understandable, especially given the fact that no team needs to reach the floor, so nobody needs to take on the contract for their own benefits. As for the Habs, they need to get rid of Price’s deal, not to lose the salary that they would get by putting his contract on LTIR.
With that being said, Hughes’ quote saying “We’re fine, we don’t have to trade Carey Price,” is a true statement as the Canadiens can easily bury his contract on LTIR, but they will lose salary they could use to make the team better at the deadline. So while some analysts are saying that the Canadiens don’t have a choice but to trade Price, that really isn’t the case, but they would be in a much better situation if they did.
Following the talk about the cap situation, Hughes and Engels discussed the more positive story of the team all getting back together to train in Brossard 2 weeks before training Camp actually starts. It was also reported on Wednesday that training camp will begin on September 17th.