Hockey

Carey Price’s contract: the Penguins are another logical team to take him on
Félix Forget
Carey Price’s contract: the Penguins are another logical team to take him on
Credit: Getty Images

At the moment, only two teams in the entire NHL have a bigger payroll than the Habs for the 2025-26 season: the Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers.

We're talking here about the team that signed Mitch Marner, as well as the team that just retained the services of Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad: so it's not necessarily surprising to see them at the top of the list.

(Credit: Screenshot/CapWages)

The Canadiens, that said, aren't over the cap as of today. The club has just under $100,000 to spare, and in effect can still place Carey Price's contract ($10.5 million) on the LTIR. So, he's got a lot to play for, but…

We know that the club is in the hunt for Jordan Kyrou, who earns $8.125 million a year, and you'd think they'd like to add a few bits and pieces to their group. That said, Price's contract complicates the matter for one simple reason: the club doesn't want to place him on the off-season LTIR, since that doesn't help maximize the in-season payroll.

And since you can't exceed the cap by more than 10% during the summer, it's understandable that this is a problem in Montreal right now. Not a huge problem, but a problem nonetheless.

So, for the Habs, trading Price's contract would give them a lot of accounting clout. We know that the Sharks are a popular destination… but Marco D'Amico also mentioned another possibility: the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Penguins' case isn't as clear-cut as that of the Sharks, who literally need a ton of money to reach the salary floor. In fact, in the case of the Penguins, the club has already reached the floor… but we know that Pittsburgh would like to sell.

And while the club has reached the floor, it's still a long way from comfortably exceeding it. Remember that the floor is set at $70.6 million, and right now, the Penguins' payroll is $74.3 million.

If a guy like Erik Karlsson ($10M) or Bryan Rust ($5.125M) is traded, then the club will be under the floor. And that's where Price's contract could help.

Remember that Price's contract would cost a team very little, given that even signing bonuses are guaranteed. If a team really wants to pay as little as possible, it could wait until September to go after him (the bonus will have been paid in full by then), but then again, the Habs could try to create a war between the Penguins and the Sharks over this contract.

Because the sooner this contract leaves the Habs' books, the sooner the club will finally have a little more room to manoeuvre. And while we're looking to turn the corner, waiting another year for Price's $10.5 million (and even Laine's $8.7 million) to leave the club's books isn't ideal.


Overtime

– Signing Evan Bouchard for eight years would have cost the Oilers too much.

– The problem is, there aren't many… and the Habs won't be alone in this race.

– News from Nikolaj Ehlers.

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