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Kent Hughes: Trading Carey Price’s contract is “not impossible

 Auteur: Manuel Sperandio-Lemay
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Kent Hughes: Trading Carey Price’s contract is “not impossible

Let’s face it: Carey Price’s career is over.

His injuries have hurt him to the point where he should never be able to play another game in the National League. Boring, but there you go.

That said, even though he’s not playing and will probably never play in the NHL again, his pact is still in effect. Price’s contract, which has a cap hit of $10.5 million on the CH payroll, is still important.

In the eyes of some, it’s a millstone around the Montreal Canadiens’ neck. That’s understandable, because he gets paid a lot of money even though he can’t play.

The idea of trading his contract has been discussed many times in recent weeks and months. It may seem complicated for obvious reasons… But Kent Hughes sees things differently:

I don’t know what it looks like, and I don’t know if it will ever happen, but I certainly wouldn’t describe it as an impossibility. – Kent Hughes

OK. There are many, many things to unpack in all this.

One might think of the fact that Price’s situation is a bit like Shea Weber’s. The Golden Knights acquired him last summer and placed him on the long-term injured list to bury his salary… Which allowed the club to have room for all the other players on the team under the cap.

The Knights had to get rid of Evgenii Dadonov’s contract in the deal, but they came out ahead in the end.

That said, Price’s situation is not necessarily similar to that of the former Flanelle captain.

When Weber was traded, there were no signing bonuses left to pay (which are due on July 1), and for each of the last three years remaining on his contract, he was paid just one million dollars in actual salary.

Price, on the other hand, earns a real salary of $2 million each year, and is entitled to big signing bonuses between now and the end of his contract. The one for 2023-24 ($6.5 million) has already been paid, but those for 2024-25 and 2025-26 ($5.5 million each year) have yet to be paid.

When you think about it, though… After July 1, 2025, he’ll have $2M (in real salary) left to move, and that’s when you realize that his contract may be tradable :

(Credit: Cap Friendly)

It won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible either.

Because in the end, it could be ideal for a team that needs money to meet the floor.

I mentioned Weber earlier… But we all agree that the idea of trading Shea Weber has a different impact than trading Carey Price, even if both players are no longer able to play.

Price is a crowd favorite, just as Weber was… But Price has played his entire career in Montreal, there’s talk of him joining the club in some capacity, and he’s the idol of many fans – well, Carey is Carey.

I don’t know how it would go over with the fans.

Gossip

– None of the above!

– Sick.

– Great story.

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