Jake Allen got traded to Montreal — How Does This Affect The Leafs?
By Cam Lewis
3 years agoThe Leafs made a big trade last week, effectively stealing the spotlight from the playoffs by dealing Kasperi Kapanen to the Penguins. The Canadiens then decided they should do the same thing.
The Habs and Blues hooked up on a deal that sends goaltender Jake Allen to Montreal in exchange for a couple of draft picks.
At a glance, this is kind of a hilarious move for the Habs because they now have roughly $15 million tied into their goaltending duo.
If Allen is as good as he was in 2019-20 — he posted a .927 save percentage over 24 regular-season games and a .935 save percentage over five appearances in the playoffs — then this certainly gives Montreal a very, very good goaltending tandem. But, still, it’s pretty wild to see a team acquire a backup with a $4,350,000 cap hit when they already have $10,500,000 tied into their starting goalie.
Anyways, enough about the Habs. The real interesting part of this deal is the aforementioned cap hit.
In making this move, the Blues effectively cleared out $4,350,000 in cap room just like that. That’s a pretty significant chunk of cash out the window, which is key for them in their endeavour to get captain Alex Pietrangelo re-signed.
There’s still a ways to go, as the Blues have just over $6,000,000 in cap room to work with this fall, but I would probably go ahead and pause my Pietrangelo Maple Leafs jersey order. If St. Louis can dump either of Tyler Bozak or Alex Steen, then they’re good to go. If not, then dealing David Perron, Brayden Schenn, or Jaden Schwarts might be the way to go.
Elliotte Friedman spoke about Pietrangelo’s free agency last week on “Headlines” and suggested that he believes the captain would like to stick around in St. Louis…
“I think at the end of the day, most people believe that Alex Pietrangelo would like to remain with the St. Louis Blues, and there is time for both sides to get serious and work this out,” Friedman said. “I get the sense that they’ll believe that he’s an unrestricted free agent when they see it, but it is a matter of now seven weeks to see if they can hammer this out.”
Back to the drawing board we go!
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