This morning, the Canadiens announced the long-awaited signing of Alex Newhook. The young forward will earn a salary of 2.9 million for the next four years. It's a very good contract, especially as Newhook will be placed in a role to produce, most likely on a top-six forward. With this agreement, Kent Hughes gives himself a great deal of leeway for the 2024-25 season. In fact, there will only be Samuel Montembeault, Justin Barron and Arber Xhekaj to sign, and more than $15 million in payroll. If we put Carey Price's contract on the long-term injury list, a further 10.5 million will be added to that 15 million. <q>With Newhook's $2.9 million contract, the Habs should have just over $15 million under the salary cap next summer, with just Montembeault/Xhekaj/Barron to sign. That includes Price's contract. The Canadiens will have a lot of flexibility with their payroll. It should be an exciting summer. If we put Price on the long-term injured list, it just went up to over $25 million. There will be bonuses to pay, and the cap might not go up by $4 million as expected, but that would still leave plenty of room to make a major move. - HabsLinks</q> This summer, Hughes was pretty handcuffed, but this is the last season that happens. Next summer, he'll have all the space he needs to build a much more competitive team. It's also worth remembering that a number of big names signed short one-year deals this summer, which means that a lot of good free agents will be available this time next year. <blockquote class=twitter-tweet><p lang=en dir=ltr>If you put Price on LTIR, that number goes up over $25m. There will be bonus overages and the cap might not go up $4m as projected, but there will be a lot of room to make a big move.- HabsLinks (@HabsLinks) <a href=https://twitter.com/HabsLinks/status/1678751605552734208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>July 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src=https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js charset=utf-8>