The Habs made a pair of roster moves on Friday.
First, they claimed defenceman Jay Leach off re-entry waivers from New Jersey,
then activated Alex Henry off of injured reserve and immediately placed him on
waivers for demotion to Hamilton.
Leach was a 5th round selection (115th overall) of the Phoenix Coyotes back in
1998. The 6’4, 220 lb d-man’s NHL experience is quite limited though with
just 28 games played, though 24 of those came last season with the Devils.
In that span, he has amassed 1 assist and 28 PIMS with an even rating.
This year, he has played a dozen games for New Jersey’s AHL affiliate in Lowell,
picking up 3 assists and 10 PIMS with a -2 rating.
Henry was injured in a preseason fight and has yet to play this season.
The veteran blueliner played in a pair of games with the Habs last season with a
fight in each one. The new Hamilton Bulldogs captain this season
(replacing Kyle Chipchura), Henry had a total of 10 points and 127 PIMS in 79
games played last year.
The cap implications on this are actually quite insignificant. Henry’s cap
hit with Montreal was based on a fraction using his NHL and AHL salaries
relative to the amount of time he spent in the NHL last season. (If that
makes no sense, check out the ‘Camp Injuries’ section of my
capsheet).
In total, his cap hit just exceeded $200,000. Leach is one of very few
players that has an NHL cap hit lower than the league minimum at $487,500.
Considering that the Habs are only responsible for half of this salary (as he
was claimed off of re-entry waivers), his total cap hit will be for less than
$200,000 if he remains with the Canadiens for the remainder of the season.
One other important note: This is the 50th contract for Montreal which is the
maximum; thus in order to acquire another player, someone must be moved as well.
A note on the LTIR situation as I’ve had several inquiries this week – Andrei
Markov was officially placed on LTIR on Wednesday – the capsheet has now been updated to reflect this.