New Frontrunner Team for Canadiens To Trade Carey Price Contract
We heard earlier this summer that the Montreal Canadiens are anxious to ship out the final year of Carey Price's contract before the 2025-26 campaign begins.
"I can’t see the Canadiens going into the season with that anchor on their salary cap," a source told insider Marco D'Amico in rg.org. In addition, there's now a new frontrunner as the most likely trade partners for Montreal to take on the massive $10.5M cap hit.
Price is expected to be traded at some point in the week. Sources have heard the most amount of noise around the San Jose Sharks who are just $5M over the salary cap floor, with nine unrestricted free agents — five of which are defensemen — that could be prime trade candidates.
D'Amico also names the Chicago Blackhawks (which we discussed last month as well), and the Pittsburgh Penguins as the other potentially interested parties for Price's cap hit.
The Sharks will likely be selling off several of those nine pending UFAs that D'Amico makes note of by the trade deadline, which would plunge them below the salary floor. That's where Price's $10.5M would come in handy.
The 9 UFAs who could be on the market from the Sharks, and their cap hits, are as follows:
- Alex Wennberg, C, $5M cap hit
- Jeff Skinner, F, $3M
- Carl Grundstrom, F, $1.8M
- Ryan Reaves, F, $1.35M
- Nick Leddy, D, $4M
- John Klingberg, D, $4M
- Mario Ferraro, D, $3.25M
- Timothy Liljegren, D, $3M
- Vincent Desharnais, D, $2M
