Martin St. Louis behind the Canadiens’ bench (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
The Montreal Canadiens are starting the 2025–26 season with 22 men on their active roster, one short of the NHL’s standard 23. It’s a subtle but telling move—one that hints at a front office focused not just on development and depth, but on financial precision. For general manager Kent Hughes and executive vice president Jeff Gorton, it’s not about who’s missing—it’s about what the Canadiens are quietly building: future cap space.
In an exclusive interview with RG earlier this summer, Gorton admitted that the Canadiens are comfortable with their roster, but would look to add throughout the season.
“We know we’re not a finished product,” Gorton acknowledged. “We’re going to still look and try to improve our team always. I have mentioned before that we don’t look at it like opening day as the end of when you can change your roster. There are a lot of teams around the league that add players after that and all the way up to the deadline.”
The Canadiens are waiting for the right opportunities to add to their roster, and now that they’re out from under the crippling use of Long-Term Injury Reserve (LTIR) after moving Carey Price last month, every dollar saved counts.
The Canadiens are seeking to give themselves the most amount of flexibility to make an important trade, but, as sources have indicated to RG of late, it won’t necessarily have to wait until the NHL Trade Deadline.
How Cap Space Accrues in The NHL
Under the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, the salary cap is calculated on a daily basis over the 191-day regular season. Teams can spend up to the $95.5 million ceiling (for 2025–26), but unused cap space carries forward, growing each day it’s not used.
Here’s the key:
Every day a team operates below the salary cap, that difference is banked proportionally.
Over time, this accumulated space allows the team to add more salary later in the season than they could have afforded on Day 1.
In simple terms, $1 of cap space in October is worth about 2.5$ in mid-December and just under $5 in March because it has time to compound. The more days a team spends below the ceiling, the more room they’ll have when it matters most—particularly around the trade deadline.
For example, by carrying 22 players instead of 23, the Canadiens saved roughly $775,000 in salary cap obligations to open the season. That daily accrual compounds into an additional cap benefit of nearly $1.6M by mid-December and $2.7M by March 6, enough to help them absorb a player with a much larger annual cap hit at the deadline.
So saving that extra $775,000 on Samuel Blais’ contract being waived, and ultimately lost to a Toronto Maple Leafs claim, would make the Canadiens even more flexible to make a deal in-season, and not have to wait to the NHL Trade Deadline to make a move.
Their $5.53M in cap space would give them about $14.5M in pro-rated cap space by the December Trade Freeze; more than enough to pounce on a deal for a top-six centre if one was made available by then.
“They’re positioning themselves to be ready to pounce on a trade target that’s made available at any point this season,” said an NHL source on the subject. “Montreal is waiting for the market to shake loose. They have the trade assets, they needed the cap flexibility, and now they have that too. It’s now a question of the right opportunity coming down.”
Why The December Trade Freeze
The Canadiens’ decision to carry 22 players isn’t just about saving money—it’s about timing. The next inflection point on the NHL calendar is the December roster freeze, a week-long window (typically Dec. 20–28) when teams are barred from making trades, waivers, or most player movements. It’s a natural pause in the league’s transaction cycle—and for smart front offices like Montreal’s, it’s also a pressure valve.
In the weeks leading up to the freeze, general managers often start to feel the squeeze. Injuries mount, depth gets tested, and underperforming clubs begin to accept reality. That’s when the first cracks in the market appear, but this year, the expectation is that teams may be a bit more aggressive.
“That 2026 Draft class is looking mighty attractive already, with a generational talent like Gavin McKenna at the top,” said an NHL scout. “I know of a few teams that would likely pack it in early if their team is out of it by December, and I bet the Canadiens are watching.”
Due to bubble teams likely looking to sell early by moving veterans before the holiday lockout, as we saw last year to a heightened degree, teams like the Canadiens would be well-positioned from an asset and cap space perspective to take advantage of that market.
According to NHL league sources and long-time cap watchers, Montreal’s management views December as the true opening of the trade season. And it’s not by chance.
The Canadiens made a very impactful trade right before the December Roster Freeze in 2024 when they acquired Alex Carrier from Nashville in exchange for Justin Barron. His acquisition rebalanced the Canadiens’ defensive corps and provided the stability needed to propel them to a playoff push.
The NHL Trade Deadline may be months away, but the most creative, low-cost opportunities often emerge before the holidays, when fewer teams have space and a small move can tilt the balance. With roughly $8.5 million of effective buying power by that point, Montreal could pursue a legitimate top-six center, the kind of addition that might stabilize the forward group and accelerate its climb toward contention.
But there is one thing to keep in mind: the NHL Playoffs Cap.
The New Playoff Salary Cap Rules
For years, NHL teams exploited a loophole: once the playoffs began, the salary cap effectively disappeared. That meant contenders could stash expensive players on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) during the regular season, then activate them in the postseason without penalty. The most famous example came in 2021, when the Tampa Bay Lightning used LTIR to exceed the cap by nearly $18 million on their way to a Stanley Cup.
That loophole is now closed. Under the new playoff salary cap framework, which takes effect this season, teams must remain cap-compliant throughout the postseason under a soft playoff cap. While the calculation differs slightly from the regular season, the essence is simple: a team can only dress 20 players for any playoff game, and the combined cap hits of those players must fall under 95.5M.
This change directly impacts the Canadiens’ approach to their accrued cap space. By running a 22-man roster, Montreal could build up to roughly $25.5 million of effective buying power by the trade deadline—money that, under the old rules, could have been used to bring in one or two massive additions before the playoffs without consequence. Under the new framework, however, the Canadiens can’t simply stockpile high-salary players at the deadline and expect to slide them into a playoff lineup over the cap. They must still be cap-compliant once the postseason begins, meaning that every big acquisition must fit within both their regular-season cap structure and the playoff roster limit.
That reality creates a dual incentive for general manager Kent Hughes. On one hand, Montreal is motivated to make impactful moves well before the deadline—to strengthen the team’s playoff push while maximizing the value of that accrued space. On the other hand, they must ensure that any additions still fit into a playoff-legal roster configuration, balancing on-ice performance with salary discipline. Even with the NHL’s new playoff cap, the Canadiens can still be aggressive buyers, but they have to think strategically about which contracts will actually see playoff ice.
This is where roster management becomes a chess game. For example, if the Canadiens were to acquire a high-salary player, they could easily fit him under their regular-season cap structure with the $25.5 million in buying power they’re projected to have by the deadline. However, if a player like Patrik Laine, who carries an $8.7M cap hit, sees his role or health become uncertain heading into the postseason, Montreal could choose to leave his contract off the playoff roster, effectively reallocating that money elsewhere under the new soft cap. Doing so would allow the Canadiens to make one or even two additional mid-season acquisitions and not worry about the playoff implications.
The net effect is that the Canadiens are now incentivized to act early, but responsibly. The flexibility they’ve built early in the season gives them room to maneuver for a top-six center, a veteran scorer, or even a short-term high-salary rental. Yet every move must be made with an eye toward the spring, when cap compliance will once again matter. In the new NHL landscape, financial agility is no longer about exploiting loopholes—it’s about mastering the timing and structure of every dollar spent.
For Montreal, that’s the real benefit of starting the season with 22 men. The extra space they’re banking today doesn’t just buy flexibility; it buys options—options that could shape both their playoff roster and their trajectory as a contender.