On Saturday night, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported that the Montreal Canadiens are looking to move the contract of captain Shea Weber, who's missed all of the season with multiple injuries. Weber isn't expected to play again due to these injuries.
"Yeah, so a lot of the talk in Montreal has been about defencemen who could be available, but there's another one there too. That is Shea Weber's contract. Weber, of course, likely not going to play in the National Hockey League ever again. He's got four years left after this year. The cap hit is $7.9 million, but the cash is $6 million total," Friedman said on Hockey Night in Canada.
He added, "I wouldn't be surprised if some teams who either need long-term injury room or want to get to the cap floor and aren't looking to spend a ton in the next couple years, take a look at that Weber contract. It's a possible move."
During Monday's 32 Thoughts podcast, Friedman mentioned that one team that could be interested is the Minnesota Wild. He said that adding Weber's contract would take them right to the salary cap ceiling, and then after adding him to LTIR, they would be able to make an additional move at the deadline.
"If there was any team where it would make sense to use Weber's contract it might be them. Because you take yourself right to the edge and then you give yourself an extra $7.6M in cap room by putting Weber on LTIR," Friedman said.
Weber, 36, has four more years remaining on his contract following the 2021-22 season with a cap hit of $7,857,143.
Friedman on 32TP talking #mnwild and Shea Weber's contract:
If there was any team where it would make sense to use Weber's contract it might be them. Because you take yourself right to the edge and then you give yourself an extra $7.6M in cap room by putting Weber on LTIR.— NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) March 7, 2022
