Dadonov – Weber trade a big salary cap win for Golden Knights

The Montreal Canadiens and Golden Knights combined for a fascinating trade on Thursday. The short version is that Evgenii Dadonov goes to the Canadiens in the trade, while Shea Weber‘s contract (LTIR-bound) buys the Golden Knights serious salary cap relief.

Upon first impact, this feels like a tremendous trade for the Golden Knights.

Serious salary cap relief for Golden Knights with Shea Weber contract, Canadiens trade for Dadonov

Canadiens receive: Evgenii Dadonov

Golden Knights receive: Shea Weber

At first impact, a bit odd by Montreal

Dadonov, 33, carries a $5 million salary cap hit for one more season. During the past three seasons, he’s bounced from the Panthers (2019-20) to the Senators (2020-21) to the Golden Knights (2021-22) and finally the Canadiens. Of course, the Golden Knights tried to wiggle around salary cap issues with a Dadonov trade during the deadline. That move was invalidated.

To the utmost credit of Dadonov, he didn’t just suit up for the Golden Knights after that debacle. He was fantastic. Dadonov delivered to the point that he was a major reason Vegas stayed in the playoff hunt. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough.

It’s still puzzling that the Canadiens didn’t receive a draft pick of any kind to sweeten this deal. Sure, it’s ideal to get out of Shea Weber’s contract, yet they at least projected the vibe of a rebuilder. Could that have just been a temporary thing?

TSN’s Darren Dreger floated Jeff Petry‘s name while leaning toward this eventual Weber move.

We’ll see if the Canadiens have other tricks up their sleeves. (There’s always the possibility that they dangle Dadonov in a future trade, too.)

Then again, maybe it was simply worth it to get out of Weber’s contract?

Landing Weber contract without giving up picks: salary cap slam-dunk trade for the Golden Knights

It’s easiest to see the logic of the Dadonov – Weber trade from the Golden Knights’ side.

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Put that cap hit on LTIR, and it’s almost $8M in space. So, really, this trade is kind of sort of a near-$13M salary cap swing for the Golden Knights.

Weber’s actual cost is also lower than his cap hit.

In 2022-23, he’s owed a $3M signing bonus (likely already paid) plus $1M in base salary. Over the following three seasons (2023-24 to 2025-26), Weber’s owed a $1M signing bonus plus $1M in base salary. It’s also possible that factors such as insurance might soften that already-manageable cost.

There may also be some fuzziness if Weber retires (rather than essentially being retired while getting paid, Chris Pronger-style).

[Earlier this week, Golden Knights hired Bruce Cassidy as head coach]

So … yeah, the Dadonov – Weber trade seems like a huge salary cap win for the Golden Knights. They still have serious work to do this offseason, but Montreal really eased Vegas’ burden. It remains resounding that the Golden Knights pulled this off without even coughing up a marginal draft pick.

After all, they almost forked over a second-rounder to the Ducks.

Among other things, contenders should keep this in mind as another lesson. You might as well just go for it, because there’s almost always another team waiting to bail you out. Sometimes for cheap.

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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.

Dadonov – Weber trade a big salary cap win for Golden Knights originally appeared on NBCSports.com