If MTL goes out and spends nearly 15mill on veteran UFAs this year then what happens next year when they need to sign Guhle and Slafkovsky to long term contracts?

Savard, Armia, Dvorak, Evans + cap increase should be enough. Not to mention that Anderson is likely gone one way or another. They'd be fine.

Im all for adding Stamkos at whatever number he wants as long as its short term. Toffoli will get more than that though and frankly I'd be ok with just Stamkos. Newhook deserves the other top 6 mins off the hop here IMO. Dvorak-Armia-Roy on 3rd line. Evans Gally and whoever on 4th.

Idk, Stammer is great but I just don’t think it’s a great idea to go out and spend 10.5 a year for the next 3 years on a guy who’s 34 years old. Also I know +\~ is an archaic stat and all but has anyone else noticed that he is a ~21 on a team that has a +25 goal differential?

He's not what he used to be and that's fine. His value is his experience and leadership more than his scoring even though that's still pretty good. He's going to teach the young group how to win and what it takes to be excellent instead of just good. This is a young team about to get younger once some other vets leave and we're going to need that "guy" that everyone in the room respects, including Suzuki. They need someone to look up to whose been there and done that and Stammer would be the absolute best chance we have at someone like that. And frankly, the only reason we'd have even a slight chance at him is because of MSL.

Yes the Habs could use a legit weapon like Reinhart or whatever but truthfully we aint going to get anyone in their prime. But I think captain, cup winner, megastar, even at his age would do wonders for the core of this group which will be the ones that lead us to the promise land if we do.

Plus all the best options for the Habs are guys who are going to want long term contracts. If Habs draft a forward this year, we'll be absolutely stacked up front for the next decade almost. We need guys for the now and short term only. Since cap space is not an issue, we can afford to go high on a short term deal for a guy like Stammer. By the time we really need cap space, he'll be gone.

Might as well sign a leader like Monahan to a 4.5M-5.5M contract for 2 years and use the remaing cap space to acquire long-term assets.

It a fair point, however if you look at the longterm outlook tab, you can see that the following year, the habs will have 30M$ in cap space to sign them.

I expect Slaf to get something like Caufield’s deal and that they will bridge Guhle.

As for the reason to pick up Stamkos - I think @F50marco sums it up quite well!

You want that vet presence in the locker room… and so far our vets seem to play on the bottom 6.

Let’s splurge on the old rockstar - we can afford it.

If Mony is willing to take that for 2 years, sure! But I doubt it.

He rehabbed his career in MTL and he is probably looking for a longterm deal that will carry him to retirement.

The point is that ELC expire quickly. Guhle and Slaf expire next year but Dach, Hutson, Mailloux, Roy, Beck, Mesar, Reinbacher will expire in two years. Some might have opportunity to shine with MTL and ask for a decent amount of money. I don’t think they are planning to go after a big UFA this offseason. If they do, it will be for a vet that accepts a two year contract.