Including Shea Weber and Carey Price, then with the recent addition of Tyler Toffoli among the injured, the Montreal Canadiens have a payroll cut of nearly $ 50 million by absences.
Toffoli, who earns an average annual salary of $ 4.25 million, is now contributing to the already ridiculous situation. The striker must indeed miss the next eight weeks after undergoing surgery to one hand.
To do the count, note that Price, the highest employee of the CH at $ 10.5 million per season, is still on the assistance program for players of the National Hockey League. On the long-term injured list, Weber ($ 7.86 million) and Paul Byron ($ 3.4 million) represent more than $ 11 million.
Brendan Gallagher, with his salary of $ 6.5 million, is for his part on the sidelines due to the protocol related to COVID-19, as is Sami Niku ($ 750,000). Finally, $ 19.5 million was added with Jeff Petry, Josh Anderson, Toffoli and Joel Edmundson on the sidelines.
A difficult situation
Head coach Dominique Ducharme may want to avoid excuses, but we have to admit that it is rather difficult to do well in such a situation.
According to the specialist site CapFriendly, the combined salaries of the Canadiens’ current forwards are equivalent to $ 27.675 million, including $ 5.5 million paid to Jonathan Drouin. With $ 12 million for defenders and $ 3.625 million for goalies, this means that the payroll of players currently active with the Habs is: $ 43.3 million. In theory, the lower limit in the NHL is set at $ 60.2 million while the salary cap is set at $ 81.5 million.