The key to success in the salary-capped NHL

Did they win the Cup while I wasn’t looking? I’m curious by what standard Cowan considers the Habs a success. They certainly fill their building, but they do that regardless of their record. Their current one year streak of making the playoffs isn’t exactly mind-blowing.

By comparison, the New York Rangers

Far be it from me to defend the Rangers, but Cowan might be surprised to learn that they have more regular season points (291-287) and have played in more playoff rounds (5-3) than the Canadiens in the salary cap era.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.  It’s about the cap hit, not the money being paid.  Roszival’s cap hit, for example, is only $5M.  And this guy is a professional hockey writer?  Are you effing kidding me?

Not is Rosy’s cap hit wrong Redden is making 6.5 and Gomez is making 7.3. This guy is joke!.  He is also wrong about Drury and Hank’s cap hit.

and the other problem this clown is failing to realize is that they have to RESIGN koivu, tanguay, kovalev, higgins, plekanec, begin, chipchura, kostopolous, latendresse, boullion, dandeneault, and komisarek next year as all of them are either UFAs or RFAs next year…

many of which are due for a huge pay increase..  i cant wait to see what this guy has to say then

Cowan is not one of the Gazette’s Habs beat writers, so no, he is not a “professional hockey writer”.

The Habs are $6.8m below this year’s cap (their full roster is under last year’s cap still), so there is plenty of room to re-sign a lot of the players for next year, especially if the cap climbs to $60m. 

And no, they don’t have to re-sign Bégin, Kostopolous, Bouillon or Dandenault at all.