Here’s why a Carey Price buyout would not be advantageous

Carey Price could be traded this summer. The possibility has already been raised to help the club’s payroll.

Price, who hasn’t played in three years, hasn’t played regularly in four and won’t play again in 2025-2026, is open to lifting his no-trade clause if it would help the Canadiens.

Either way, he wouldn’t physically have to move if his contract is traded.

Because yes, for many reasons, Kent Hughes will try to assess whether the option of taking Carey Price off his payroll is worth it. He’ll certainly be working on it, anyway.

But it won’t be through a buyout.

Why do I say that? Because, in addition to the fact that you can’t buy out an injured player without his consent, the structure of Price’s contract makes the project too disadvantageous to contemplate.

Here’s what it would look like if he were bought out. Data taken from PuckPedia.

As you can see, Price will earn $7.5M in real money in 2025-2026, but will receive $5.5M in bonuses. So during the season, he’ll earn just $2 million.

This is the amount that would be bought back. The club would save $666,666 in real money (a buyout is paid at 2/3 of the amount remaining to be paid to the player) since Price would now earn $666,667 in 2025-2026 and $666,667 in 2026-2027.

But the problem is the impact of such a buyout on the cap.

In 2025-2026, instead of an impact on payroll of $10.5 million, we’d be talking about $9,166,667. And in 2026-2027, instead of $0, it would be $666,667 on the Canadiens’ cap hit (i.e., on the payroll).

At first glance, you might think that the amount is smaller in 2025-2026 and easy to absorb the following year. But there’s an important detail to consider.

The $9.17 million would be considered dead money, not an active contract. The result? The amount could not be placed on the club’s long-term injured list. It would just… be counted against the lot at all times, with no possibility of benefiting from it on the LTIR.

So I can assure you that no, it’s not a possibility, since it would take away the club’s flexibility. There’s no chance of Price’s contract being bought out by the Canadiens.

For Price, the options are as follows: either he’ll be placed on the injured list like in other years, or he’ll be traded… or he’ll do the club a favor by announcing his retirement. But a buyout is out of the question.

overtime

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– Interesting.

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