The Canadiens secured the face of the franchise for 8 years, while losing a fan favorite to Dallas. It has been a bittersweet couple of days for the Canadiens fanbase, myself included.
The great news is that Carey Price has a career contract with the Canadiens coming in at 8 years at 10.5 million dollars a year totaling $84 million. He is the teams best player, arguably the best goaltender in the NHL, and the cornerstone piece of the Canadiens franchise, currently.
The bad news is Carey Price's new cap hit, taking effect in the 2018-19 season, is going to be the benchmark for all contracts and requires a steadily rising cap for at least a few more years to not be considered a hinderance on the Habs cap space.
Look, I'm of the opinion that Carey Price is invaluable to the team. I wanted a more team friendly deal of 8.5-9.5 for the sake of the maximizing future cap space. But am I upset the Habs had to pay an extra $1.5 million over $9 million? Not really, part of me actually expected it but didn't want to speak of it.
Let's look at this a different way. If you wanted Price to stay at $9 million per year over 8 years (he was getting 8 years) are you really mad at the Habs paying an extra 17% to keep him? I would rather the Habs paid 17% more for Price than have the massive distraction next season followed up by him leaving town as a UFA. Avoided all that for 17% more than $9 million. Add into that the massive amount of taxes Canadians pay Federally and in Quebec and it's really obvious that Montreal will always have to overpay elite players. Elite players get paid. If you want to be mad at someone be mad at the Government for their income tax rates.
Long term this deal will likely not be the death howl of the franchise, despite the reactions from some on fans, due to Vegas likely helping the cap move forward next year. Vegas was a perfect expansion partner for the NHL. I'm already trying to plan a trip there to catch the Habs game, and I'm sure so are A LOT of NHL fans around the world. Vegas could bump the cap higher for a couple years and that alone will help balance the cap scales when Price's new contract takes effect.
So get off the bridge fellow fans, Price got paid. The same guy everyone says is the entire team for a few years now got his share of the pie. I can't really say he doesn't deserve it, he does. Not only for what he means to the franchise but his overall place within the games elite players. To say Carey Price is the highest earning goaltender in the NHL isn't shocking to say, in fact it would seem wrong if it wasn't.
So overall, that was great news. Price is a Hab for life.
Onto the bad news...
The Alex Radulov song and dance came to an end with Radu taking his talents to Dallas and agreeing to a 5 year, $31.25 million dollar deal, $6.25 cap hit.
There's some talk from some high ranking Habs media that Montreal tabled him the exact same offer he signed today, only a couple days ago. There's some wondering if the agent told his client Montreal had in fact given him the offer but until the player, or agent, comes out and says something shady happened I'm just going to have to assume Radulov was trying to maximize his earning potential on possibly his last big pro hockey contract.
On social media the aforementioned tax rates have been brought up as a possible reason he left as he would stand to put $1.1 million dollars more in his pocket, per year, on this contract residing in Dallas as opposed to working in Montreal. That would mean an extra $5.5 million over the term in Radu's bank, basically that 6th year he likely also wanted from Montreal.
It's tough to sign players in Montreal. They must pay up when the competition is also digging in on acquiring the services of the same player. This isn't new and it isn't likely to change. It just has to be accepted at this point.
Unfortunately, this year it cost us a few more years of watching the Tasmanian Devil rip around the Bell Centre ice. Hopefully, it doesn't cost the Canadiens another good player in the future. I wish Radulov well in Dallas.
One other bit of news to discuss is the signing of soon to be 34 years old Ales Hemsky to a one year, $1 million dollar deal. No real risk here, but I'm thinking there's also no real reward. I hope Hemsky can rediscover his game for the year, stay healthy, and earn himself another contract, but that's a lot of wishful thinking, even for me. He played 15 games with the Stars last season and put up 7 points.
All that's left for Bergevin to sign is Alex Galchenyuk and, maybe, Andrei Markov. Bergevin performed pretty well this offseason until he let Radulov slip away to Dallas. How he handles the negotiations with these players could be his defining moment in Montreal the summer. Sign? Trade? Sign and trade? Expect the unexpected.