Brendan Gallagher's trade value revealed
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Jay Tup
December 21, 2021 (2:07 PM)
It's clear that Jeff Gorton has a plan for the Montreal Canadiens and that plan likely involves a full rebuild. Given the way this season has gone it's likely the Canadiens wish they could turn back the clock and undo the Christian Dvorak deal so they could retain their second 1st round pick.
Now it seems that Jeff Gorton has turned his attention to finding a way to accumulate assets of his own. The Canadiens are likely going to be shopping some of their veteran players to try and expedite their rebuild. Names currently on the trade block include
Carey Price,
Ben Chiarot and most recently
Brendan Gallagher.
There is no question should the Habs choose to make Gallagher available that there will be interest, but that interest is likely to be limited by Gallagher's contract. Gallagher has 5 years remaining at a cap hit of $6,500,000 per season. Gallagher turns 30 next May and is likely expected to be on the downswing of his career as injuries have clearly stolen some of his best years from him.
This week Marc-Antoine Godin of The Athletic shared the following statement about Gallagher.
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"When he signed his contract, I can confirm to you that there were 25 teams lined up to offer him the same contract and maybe even more. His reputation is excellent."
Godin also continued on to mention the possible asking price for a retained Gallagher.
"On the other hand, it's certain that if Montreal withheld salary, a 50%, they would probably be able to go out and get a first pick and maybe even a prospect as well, for Gallagher."
The question becomes how long does Gorton see this rebuild taking and does he think he'll be forced to retain salary on any other members of his roster, namely Carey Price.
I'm not sure personally if Gorton wants to be holding a bag with $3,250,000 in dead cap space for 5 seasons if he thinks he can be competitive in 3 seasons especially with the flat cap.
Previously on HouseOfHockey
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