The Montreal Canadiens still have three RFA players to sign, and some are wondering what the delay is. Here's an explanation.
Much has already been written about Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes adopting a prudent approach by signing his core players to contracts before they become RFAs and, in some cases, before they are even eligible for offer sheets. However, right now, there are two Habs who are eligible to receive offer sheets and remain unsigned RFAs: Zach Bolduc and Arber Xhekaj.
Over the last few days, we’ve received questions on social media about the delay in signing both players. There are a few reasons that can explain the current situation. It’s important to remember that a team has a limited amount of money to spend in a season, and it makes sense to sign the players who are likely to get a bigger slice of the cake first and from there, you can establish how much you’ve got left to spend and split it amongst the remaining players.
As has also been widely reported, the Canadiens would like to land a top six forward on the trade market, and those typically carry a higher cap hit than what Bolduc and Xhekaj can reasonably be expected to have. Should Hughes be able to land that kind of player, it would have a direct impact on the Canadiens’ salary structure.
As things stand, Puckpedia reports that Montreal has just over 14 million in cap space and still needs to sign Kirby Dach, Bolduc and Xhekaj. Bringing in another player with a sizeable cap hit could make signing those contracts trickier, unless, of course, one or more of them departs as part of a potential deal.
Why did Hughes not sign Bolduc and Xhekaj before they reached RFA status? Well, simply because, unlike players like Leo Carlsson, they’re not prime candidates for unmatchable offer sheets. With all due respect to the Canadiens’ duo, their body of work so far in the league doesn’t warrant that kind of offer sheet, which explains why Hughes is not exactly in a rush to sign them. Last season, Jayden Struble was signed only on July 30, after filing for arbitration, which set a deadline for negotiations, as the two sides had until the start of the arbitration process to reach an agreement before matters were taken out of their hands. Xhekaj didn’t file for arbitration, and Bolduc wasn’t eligible, so there’s no set deadline for those signings.
A team’s salary structure is an intricate puzzle, especially challenging when you do not know the size of the pieces you still need to add. It’s not because Hughes hasn’t signed them that he’s sitting on his hands; on the contrary, he’s making a lot of calls in the hope of improving the team. Even if Hughes ended up unable to find a dance partner on the trade market, he would be careful not to give his unsigned player too big a cap hit, to keep some flexibility going forward and to be able to strike a deal in-season if players he’s interested in become available.
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