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Arber Xhekaj’s contract: the salary picture becomes clearer

 Matthew Garcia
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Arber Xhekaj’s contract: the salary picture becomes clearer
Credit: Capture d'écran / Screenshot

Now thatArber Xhekaj has signed his two-year bridge contract ($1.3 M per year for two years), let’s say the Habs’ salary picture for next season is even clearer.

Of course, we didn’t expect the Sheriff to sign for like $5 million a year: we had a sneaking suspicion of the salary he’d be pocketing, give or take a few hundred thousand dollars.

And now, except for Justin Barron, who won’t earn much when he signs, we have a clearer picture of next season.

If we look at CapWages, we can see that the Habs currently have 13 forwards (Suzuki, Caufield, Gallagher, Anderson, Dvorak, Armia, Dach, Newhook, Evans, Harvey-Pinard, Slafkovsky, Pezzetta and Barré-Boulet) who will earn $47.175 million.

Will this change? Yes. With RHP on the injured list and youngsters (including Joshua Roy) aspiring to make the club, it will change a little.

Add to that $11.938333M for five defensemen (Matheson, Savard, Harris, Xhekaj and Guhle)… and you’ve got the beginning of a picture. We’re missing Barron’s contract and the youngsters (Lane Hutson?) who will be added.

Montembeault and Primeau will earn a total of $4.04 million.

(Credit: CapWages)

Xhekaj’s contract makes the picture a little clearer: just over $63 million will be allocated to the players named above. Plus Barron, too.

But we’ll have to add the youngsters who’ll break through, Carey Price’s contract ($10.5 M, which may go on the long-term injured list) plus $5,276,250 in deadwood (Jeff Petry, Jake Allen, deferred bonuses), which means that the amount increases rapidly.

With a salary cap of $88 million, the Habs still have plenty of cap space this season – especially once Price’s contract is potentially on the LTIR. This will give Kent Hughes some extra cash, although he shouldn’t be systematically adding to his roster during the season.

It could be even bigger if David Savard, Joel Armia or Christian Dvorak leave during the season.


Overtime

– Read on.

– To be continued.

– What a steal by the Blue Jays.

– Interesting.

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