Confirmed Trade: [MTL/NSH] Alexandre Carrier for Justin Barron

[FerrisRox]

Trotz is actively trying to be the worst GM in the league - and now that Dorion is gone, he has a fair chance. What a terrifically bad trade. Shame!

Kyle Dubas has entered the chat...

 

[junyab]

A cap dump is a type of trade in the NHL where a team with extra cap space takes on a player with an expensive contract from a team that is up against the cap ceiling.

 

[ManofSteel55]

I have no clue how you can consider Kulak a "complete beast" or 2nd+7th a "bargain price".

He's a 3rd pair D that went for 3rd pair premium price.

TOI/GP since he was traded to EDM:
2021-2022: 6th
2022-2023: 6th (5th if you don't count Ekholm 21 games)
2023-2024: 7th (6th if you don't count Stetcher 7 games)
2024-2025: 4th

His competition this year was Emberson (claimed from SJ as a depth D), Stecher (who's been around the league as a depth D), Dermott (who got claimed then waived after a few games) and Joshua Brown (who is an AHL/NHL tweener).

This is similar to when EDM valued Kassian because they couldn't get anyone else to play the role.

A little off topic, but Kulak is quite possible the best 3rd pairing defenseman in the NHL. He makes AHL defensemen look like competent NHL defensemen. He can step up to play on any pair when needed to.

He wasn't competing with Emberson, Stecher, Dermott or Brown. Those guys were competing to see who ended up ask Kulak's partner, because his spot on the roster is solidified.

Kassian was actually good as a depth banger for a couple of years. He always had the speed and hands to be an NHL player, he just didn't have the focus as a young player. Eventually, as with every player, age caught up with him, and we had to pay to get rid of him, but there was a stretch of about 3.5 years where he played his role very well.

On topic, I'm not sure why anyone is crowing about winning and losing this trade. Nashville got what they wanted - they got a cheap, young player for a guy who wasn't playing well for them this season, and was signed long term. Montreal got what they wanted - a roster upgrade on a young player that wasn't quite fitting in well enough to claim a full time roster spot. Feels like a "both teams win" sort of scenario to me so far.

 

[MS]

Carrier signed a 3.75m yearly contract last summer and performed like dog poo for NSH this year, look up his stats if you don't believe me. Trotz saw an opportunity to get rid of that commitment before it got worse and took it. That's a cap dump. Nashville has a budget and they cannot afford to waste nearly 4m on a player delivering maybe 2m worth of hockey. Monahan was a cap dump too, it doesn't have much to do with the player's inherent quality.

I'm neither a Habs nor a Predators fan.

Carrier had been a very good NHL defender for 3 years prior to this year and was well worth that contract based on prior play. Then he had a bad 28 games on a team playing terribly, and Nashville panicked and rushed a terrible trade based on a small sample size.

Carrier has now returned to prior levels of play in a better situation and that contract looks very good.

 

[CupofOil]

I have no clue how you can consider Kulak a "complete beast" or 2nd+7th a "bargain price".

He's a 3rd pair D that went for 3rd pair premium price.

TOI/GP since he was traded to EDM:
2021-2022: 6th
2022-2023: 6th (5th if you don't count Ekholm 21 games)
2023-2024: 7th (6th if you don't count Stetcher 7 games)
2024-2025: 4th

His competition this year was Emberson (claimed from SJ as a depth D), Stecher (who's been around the league as a depth D), Dermott (who got claimed then waived after a few games) and Joshua Brown (who is an AHL/NHL tweener).

This is similar to when EDM valued Kassian because they couldn't get anyone else to play the role.

That's ridiculous. Kulak has had to carry 3rd pairs since coming to Edmonton with a revolving door of D partners, has upped his game in each playoff run and is playing like a top 4 Dman this season.

Anyway, the trade worked out for both teams. The Habs turned the pick into Hutson which is a big boon for them and the Oilers got a valuable #4/5 Dman for 3 going on 4 playoff runs who is greatly outplaying his contract this season.

 

[ReHabs]

I'm neither a Habs nor a Predators fan.

Carrier had been a very good NHL defender for 3 years prior to this year and was well worth that contract based on prior play. Then he had a bad 28 games on a team playing terribly, and Nashville panicked and rushed a terrible trade based on a small sample size.

Carrier has now returned to prior levels of play in a better situation and that contract looks very good.

His caphit was 0.733, 0.733, and 2.5 in those three prior years. His bad 28gp was with a caphit of 3.75 and a total salary of 4.6. NSH could very well have panicked and made a mistake but it doesn't change the fact they traded him to get out from the contract commitment.

 

[MS]

His caphit was 0.733, 0.733, and 2.5 in those three prior years. His bad 28gp was with a caphit of 3.75 and a total salary of 4.6. NSH could very well have panicked and made a mistake but it doesn't change the fact they traded him to get out from the contract commitment.

His actual contract in those years was irrelevant. He had played at the level of being a $4 million mid-pairing defender for several years and then they panicked based on a small sample size.

I'm sure they did do it try and get out from the contract, but that doesn't mean it was any sort of correct call or good management.

 

[ReHabs]

A cap dump is a type of trade in the NHL where a team with extra cap space takes on a player with an expensive contract from a team that is up against the cap ceiling.

That's precisely what NSH did, by dumping Carrier for Barron they now have just 3m in cap space. Keep in mind they have over 10m in dead cap this season. They couldn't afford the risk of keeping Carrier.

All the better for the Habs that it has worked out so far.

I'm sure they did do it try and get out from the contract, but that doesn't mean it was any sort of correct call or good management.

It's neither here nor there. Teams dump contract for non-sporting reasons all the time. NSH is not a free-wheeling, max-budget team and they're not making the playoffs this year, further squeezing their bottom line.

 

[MS]

It's neither here nor there. Teams dump contract for non-sporting reasons all the time. NSH is not a free-wheeling, max-budget team and they're not making the playoffs this year, further squeezing their bottom line.

The whole point is that they signed several absolutely terrible contracts last summer and then to get in a better cap position traded an actual decent contract for a good player based on a small sample size of poor play for a badly struggling team.

It's terrible management, and that team is a mess. Montreal basically scalped Trotz in this trade.

 

[herzausstein]

Glad Carrier is working out for Montreal.

Barron has been looking better in Nashville as time goes by and Blankenburg has replaced Carrier's ice time in Nashville with better overall results. Seems like a win-win.

Nashville sheds cap/salary and gets a younger player they hope they can fix. If not, theyre still out of a contract which wasnt working out for them this season And the player has already been adequately replaced through internal means. Montreal gets a vet that helps stabilize their younger d group.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Glad Carrier is working out for Montreal.

Barron has been looking better in Nashville as time goes by and Blankenburg has replaced Carrier's ice time in Nashville with better overall results. Seems like a win-win.

Nashville sheds cap/salary and gets a younger player they hope they can fix. If not, theyre still out of a contract which wasnt working out for them this season And the player has already been adequately replaced through internal means. Montreal gets a vet that helps stabilize their younger d group.

Agreed. Glad Carrier is working well in Montreal. He certainly wasn't with the Preds. Thrilled to get out of that contract.

This trade has been the one good thing Trotz has done as GM.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Agreed. Glad Carrier is working well in Montreal. He certainly wasn't with the Preds. Thrilled to get out of that contract.

This trade has been the one good thing Trotz has done as GM.

Yeah, Carrier has been overrated by a lot of stats-watchers due to the nice year he had with Ekholm a few years back, but aside from that he has been over-utilized and over-matched and generally looked out of place in the top-4. You want to cheer for an underdog guy like him who came up through our system, paid his dues in the minors, cleared waivers a couple times, got paid peanuts along the way... but... it was hard to keep doing that when he struggled on the ice and coaches kept using him over better players (e.g. Fabbro). The Preds have had terrible player evaluation in recent years, but they did at least finally admit to their mistake with Carrier, so that's the one rare thing Trotz (eventually) got right. (Although it might have been nicer if they had just properly evaluated Carrier all the way along and he was still around as a #6/7 guy at something more like half his current contract. Better for him and the Habs the way things have gone instead.)

 

[Top 6 Spaling]

Agreed. Glad Carrier is working well in Montreal. He certainly wasn't with the Preds. Thrilled to get out of that contract.

This trade has been the one good thing Trotz has done as GM.

Yep - can confidently say from the Nashville side we're quite happy here as well. Our defense has been better without him and we got some much-needed cap flexibility. Cannot emphasize enough that Trotz has made nothing but bad moves otherwise, but even a blind squirrel...

 

[Armourboy]

That's precisely what NSH did, by dumping Carrier for Barron they now have just 3m in cap space. Keep in mind they have over 10m in dead cap this season. They couldn't afford the risk of keeping Carrier.

All the better for the Habs that it has worked out so far.


It's neither here nor there. Teams dump contract for non-sporting reasons all the time. NSH is not a free-wheeling, max-budget team and they're not making the playoffs this year, further squeezing their bottom line.

That's news to Nashville fans and I'm sure to the owners as well. This is not the Nashville franchise of 15 years ago and neither are its financials.