Yeah, we don't have $20m-$25m in cap space.
Currently, we have just over $9m in cap space, which includes Price on our roster and not on LTIR.
Roster: $62.795m
Forwards: $46.4m
Defense: $12.355m
Goal: $4.04m
Deadcap: $5.291,25m
Retained Salary: $4.268,75m
Bonus Overages: $1.022,5m
Price: $10.5m
Total: $78,586,250
Max Cap: $87.7m
Cap Space: +$9,113,750
You're allowed to go above 10% on the Max Cap in summer, so summer cap is $87.7m + $8.77m = $96.47m. Our absolute max cap space is $17,883,750.
However, there's no way Montreal does that. My expectation for Montreal this year is for Price to be on IR and not on LTIR for the entire year.
So far, I've been right as far as how Montreal approaches the Price contract.
In year one, they put him on pre-season LTIR, maximized his cap space (brought in Monahan), and put Byron and others on LTIR in season to provide cap room.
In year two, they went over by about $1m and a bit, sent down a few players before Opening Day, put Price on LTIR on day one creating our cap space for us then recalled the players.
In year 3, the goal is not to put Price on LTIR, but to have him fit within the roster and accrue cap space. If we do this, it will ensure no bonus overages for the 2025-2026 season, and all of our dead cap will be gone (except for Gallagher's & maybe Anderson's contracts lol) for that season.
In summer 2025, with only one year left on his contract, the hope is Montreal can trade Price to a team that needs to reach the cap floor. Potential teams are Chicago and San Jose.
We will have completely reset the stupid cap situation Bergevin left by summer of 2025 by continuing in this way.
I expect us to do very little this summer.
As far as contracts go:
Barron: one year, one-way, $950k
Xhekaj: two year, one-way, $950k & $1.2m
That gives us $5m-$6m in cap space to add someone in UFA depending on how much space Montreal wants to start the season with.