CH: A deal that would have changed everything fell through last week, and now we know it included goalie Casey DeSmith.

Kent Hughes makes no secret of the fact that his plan is to meet the salary cap before the start of the season without putting Carey Price's contract on the long-term injured list.

The GM explains that certain technicalities are disadvantageous to using the LTIR before the start of the season, so he'd like to be compliant before the first game, and then place Price's name on the list, which will free up 10.5 million.

In that vein, we've just learned that a deal involving Casey DeSmith fell through last week. This confirms that the newcomer is just passing through Montreal, and that he is indeed on the market.

Unfortunately, we don't have any more details on this possible deal, which was reportedly aborted. However, according to Capfriendly, the Tricolore is about 4.7 million over the salary cap right now.

Even if Kent Hughes manages to trade DeSmith for prospects, there would still be around 2.9 million to free up. We know he can send a few young players to the AHL (on paper) to get around the payroll problem.

Names like Arber Xhekaj and Juraj Slafkovsky could be submitted to the Rocket, without leaving the Habs. Hughes would then place Carey Price's name on the LTIR just before the first game and recall the youngsters sent to Laval afterwards. They would then be in uniform for the first game.

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