At the time of writing, the Canadiens have a surplus of about 1.5 million on their payroll. Casey DeSmith earns $1.8 million. Coincidence? We don't want to pretend that the organization's new goaltender will leave, but let's just say that he has a certain value at this price, especially since he'll become an independent player next summer. This brings us to Carey Price. Kent Hughes has said loud and clear that the plan is for the goalie to start the season on the team's official roster. No, he won't play, but if Hughes is able to stay under the salary cap over the summer on Carey's salary, he'll be able to place his name on the long-term season injury list, not the summer one. The pluses are quite notable, as the rules favor the long-term season injury list and give the general manager more leeway. <q>General manager Kent Hughes said the team plans to start the season with Carey Price on the roster, then use the LTIR in-season (instead of entering the LTIR off-season). - Priyanta Emrith</q> Kent Hughes is once again proving that he's a fine strategist and that everything is calculated. If he can pull off a deal that takes him under the salary cap in the next few days, he'll put himself in a good position to make other trades during the season. <blockquote class=twitter-tweet><p lang=en dir=ltr><a href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/Habs?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>#Habs</a> GM Kent Hughes says the team are planning to start the season with Carey Price on the roster then use in-season LTIR (as opposed to going into off-season LTIR)- Priyanta Emrith (@HabsInHighHeels) <a href=https://twitter.com/HabsInHighHeels/status/1691531611647385601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>August 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src=https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js charset=utf-8>