Montreal Signs Green (to a) New Deal

Mike Green, the newest addition to the Montreal Canadiens, knows how to work a room and a make new friends, ingratiating himself with the local media right from the start of his introductory press conference.

“Bonjour, je m’appelle Michel Vert,” stated Green to a chorus of laughs from the press corps.

This was clearly a rehearsed line from the Alberta native, who did not take any questions in French, but one that demonstrated his acknowledgment of the peculiarities that come with playing hockey in Montreal.

While having Mike Green choose to sign with the rebuilding Canadiens, who are unlikely to make a pish for the playoffs any time soon, was an odd choice, it may have just come down to money.  If a rebuilding team writes the biggest cheque, sometimes you just take the money.  The more peculiar choice may be why the Habs offered him a one year 5.25 million dollar contract in the first place.

The Canadiens have not been shy about the fact that they are in a rebuild, as GM Andre Deblois has moved out just about every veteran of substance since coming on board last spring, so signing a 34 year old defenseman in free agency is out of character.  When asked why he made the offer to Green, GM Deblois was his usual candid self:

“You mean other than the fact that Mike is a terrific offensive defenseman who will be a great help to our power play and insulate our young defenseman by playing big minutes?” stated Deblois.  “My job is to make this club better and I do that by maximizing the club’s assets.  I was doing that by trading veterans before for future pieces their value depreciated earlier on in the offseason, and now in free agency, I am maximizing a different asset, the club’s cap space.”

Even after signing Green, the Canadiens have only committed $48,160,000 to their roster, making them only 1.66 million over the cap floor and a whopping 24.94 million under the salary cap.

Weaponizing that cap space has proven to be more difficult than expected for the Canadiens.  It is rumored that they have been involved in multiple discussion with teams looking to offload expensive veterans whose performances have not been good enough to justify the high price tag, only to see those teams take other deals.  In the absence of such deals the Habs have had to dip their toes into the shallow UFA pool to a greater extent then they may have otherwise preferred to in order to meet the cap floor and ice a compliant roster.

With so much cap space left and so few players on the roster, this may not be the last unconventional signing we see the Canadiens make.