Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
Nobody except for Montreal was patient enough to let him heal.
|
Montreal is one of the three big-money teams in the NHL. The Habs, Leafs, and Rangers, among them, typically earn close to half the total profits of the entire league (according to Forbes numbers over the years). And Montreal was already into LTIR money because of Carey Price, so they had no way of accruing cap space during the season.
They spent $6 million in cash, which means little to them, plus $6 million in LTIR space, which was a use-it-or-lose-it asset, to buy a 1st-round pick. Then they re-signed Monahan for just $2 million for another year, and when (by sheer luck) he turned out to be healthy and the Habs were out of the playoff picture, they sold him off as a rental for another 1st.
It was very shrewd business by the Habs, especially the back half of the transaction,
after Monahan was eligible to go to UFA status. But it wasn't necessarily stupidity on the Flames' part.
I don't think Treliving ever had the option to keep Monahan on LTIR for a full year. The owners clearly decided to try to retool on the fly, and they wanted every dollar of cap space available to hire players they
knew were healthy and ready to play.