Check This Out! Habs Cap Strategy REVEALED!

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1:02Looking for an unforgettable night out? Morella's Steakhouse on Highway 132. It's just 15 minutes from Montreal, serving up premium cuts and bold flavors, and no tax on your bill. Book your table tonight at MorellaStakehouse.ca, Taste Excellence Tonight. Brought to you by Little Bear. Give your pet the best with Little Bear pet supply. It's a proudly family-owned business here in Montreal for over 30 years. Chuck Ebby and their All-Star staff have you taken care of with all the top brands at the best prices and they really care for your pets. Shop online at LittleBareOnline.com or visit them on St. Catherine across from West Mount Square. It's Little Bear pet supply. Brought to you by McLean's Pub. Head over to McLean's Pub, 1210 Peel Street in the heart of downtown Montreal. Great food, cold drinks, and big games on all the screens. McLean's Pub. Good times and great company. Listen, I'm giving you a warning right now. I hate to do this for you, but we're taking you to school today. Well, actually, I'm going to be going to school today. Professor Dameco is teaching the class today. Get your pencil, get your paper, get your calculator,

2:07get your mind right because we're talking Montreal, Canadians, cap strategy. Marco, this and the aftermath of Jacob Fowler shining like a diamond in the final moments in Ottawa, preserving a three, two, come from behind victory for the Montreal, Canadians, a massive win on Wednesday night. And the question is, before we get our pencil sharpened and our blank sheet of paper filled with equations and numbers, Jacob Fowler. I mean, the plan is Mr. Dameco, Professor Dameco, please stick around. Are we doing, if we're doing Professor Dameco, we have to, I have to switch. Oh, here we go. He's going to, he's getting another hat. Oh, listen, he's getting the wide rim hat. Oh, I love that. We're going to do the old, we're going to do this. I love it. The feather, baby. We're going to. Yeah, that suits you. Was that Halloween imp costume? What was that? This is actually, this is my grandfather's old hat. Oh, I absolutely love it. So this is how, this is how we're going to do this episode,

3:08ladies and gentlemen, this school is, school is in session. So it was in session. For those that want to, for those that asked, we had a lot of questions on this in the show early in the week. The Canadians called up Jacob Fowler. Why didn't they call up David Reimbacher? I had a lot of complaints in, in my DMs saying David Reimbacher would look better than Jaden or Alex Kerry on the Canadian's defense. Why isn't this happening? So fair, but the reason why this isn't happening is because when the Canadians called up Jacob Fowler, they only had $148,000 in projected cap space, which means that, you know, if you were to pro-rate the season, that's only about $789,000 left. David Reimbacher's cap hit is $866,000. So they're missing about $80,000, give or take a couple thousand to be able to fit David Reimbacher into the salary cap. So what does that mean? Well,

4:10the beauty about the salary cap is if you have space, that space increases the more you go into the season because there's less days in the season so you could fit more money in that time. Out of the need of a 23-man roster limit, the Canadians could call up David Reimbacher as early as March 16th if they were to keep Jacob Fowler on the roster. So that's the day before they played the Bruins on the Tuesday on the 17th? Exactly. So if you were to call up David Reimbacher, it would probably be if, and if you were to, like the as soon as they would call them up, would be for the March 17th game. Unless Jacob Fowler goes down and David Reimbacher goes up, which given the way that Jacob Fowler played against Ottawa, and given what I'm hearing in the organization, there's a chance for anything, but they're going to ride that duo of Dolbesh and Fowler probably until they clinch a playoff spot. And I would even venture that given the nature of,

5:18you know, the Atlantic division right now, I would see maybe if they end up just going with the three goalies the whole way because even Coppococcanin in Laval yesterday admitted that he was ready to take the number one reigns and let Jacob have fun up top. And so just off of that then, right? With Jacob Fowler's performance, a standout performance on the road in Ottawa, and now the possibilities you just finished outlining Reimbacher may be a call up the day before the haves host the Bruins and two lucky winners from the star and Tamiko show will be going there thanks to our friends at Morella's and one of the proud sponsors of the show. Can we put that in connection with how well he played plus the limited amount of call ups that it doesn't make sense to Yo-Yo Fowler? Well, wow, that was high pitch. I apologize. It wasn't ever. Well, well, yeah, Professor, please, yes. So this year, unlike the years prior, you have five call ups that you can use. They used one on Fowler. But the thing with me is, who else are they going to use a

6:20call up on David Reimbacher? Yeah. Maybe Adam Engstrom when he comes back to health. They already have seven healthy defensemen. At Ford, Co-Coffield, Mystagame, Alex Texier drew in and they still had two other healthy fours that they could call upon in Vallejo and Patrick Lina. Yeah. That you know, are on the side. So I don't see a forward getting called up. And for those that ask, signing a player out of the NCAA because we're going to get to Michael Hage does not count as a call up because you're not, he wasn't in the American Hockey League. He's in the NCAA. So he'll either go straight to the American Hockey League or straight to the NCAA. We'll have a conversation about that as well. But I don't think the roster, I don't think the the limit on Cummings and Goings of Callups is necessarily a problem for the Canadians. And should they feel like Jacob Fowler needs to go down and then come back up, you know, because for example, the Canadians have a back-to-back tomorrow

7:22and Sunday. And then it's back to normalcy. And then two weeks later, you're going to have two back-to-back settings within a 10-day period. Well, maybe that's when you call back up Jacob Fowler. And you know, like the there are possibilities there. And by sending Jacob Fowler down between, you know, in that less heavy period, well, then you could accrue more cap space. Should you need to call up more players? Because that's the other thing to keep in consideration is that with the five man call up limit, until you get into April and you've accrued that cap space more. So you can't call up many more else right now. You could call it maybe two players at the same time as of midway next week, but you can't you can't call three, four or five play and you can't do that. So the Canadians cap limits them more than the Canadians, you know, like limit on recalls at this time. As you alluded to, we're going to get into Michael Hage and the timeline there, if one exists,

8:24because I saw our colleague Anthony Martino kind of his reporting got taken out of context last week about, you know, maybe he stays in the NCAA. And I want to talk about the timeline in a second and the financial ramifications of Michael Hage joining the Montreal Canadians coming up in a second. By the way, always encourage people to like and subscribe for daily haps content with yours truly and my partner and crime there, Marco D'Amico. But just as a quick aside, before we continue with Professor D'Amico and math class and salary cap class today, when you talk about David Rhinebacker, I'm kind of wishy-washy. I like the sample size. Part of me, Marco wants to see it grow with the young man playing with confidence and just playing with so many minutes. Walk me through what you think about that as an option. Does that impact how Alex Carrier slots into the daily lineup for this team? Or is it better to kind of wait? I know I'm pummeling you with questions here. Is it better to wait for Adam Angstrom who we've already seen play? Wait for him to come back

9:25from injury and there's a guy that maybe can help up on the right side if the Canadians want to recall him and not run back or hypothetically? I mean, yeah, it's possible. I think the only the the reason why there would be a like a even a need to call David Rhinebacker is simply to see where he's adding his development. Like I don't think they're going to call him up to finish the season and play in the playoffs. Like that's that's not what's going to happen here from what I'm being told. If they call him up, it's for a cup of coffee. How you doing? What's your game look like? What information can the Canadians get from the way that he's playing? Does he look like, you know, he has a solid chance of cracking the roster after a strong summer? Does he maybe need more time in the American hockey league? Are they going to, you know, push kick the the can down the line and maybe reevaluate after the AHL playoffs? Like it's just about getting information. Whereas I feel like Adam Engstrom is an NHL defenseman that could play right now. So it's a different it's a different feel and I could see the argument for having either or being called up. I don't think either or

10:29going to be called up permanently unless we really see like a downward swing from Alex Carrier, Caden Goole or, you know, whoever of James Stubler, Arbor Jackay is in the lineup. But I think it just offers flexibility. So what needs to be understood is that the longer the Canadians go without making another call up after Jacob Fowler, the more flexibility they're going to have to be able to call up a guy or two or three, maybe down the line and have enough space to sign a guy like Michael Hage. There's Marco Domingo and Sean Star. Thanks so much for being with us. And again, just to recap, the the belief of around Jacob Fowler is that they're not going to yo-yo him between Laval and the NHL club. Is that is that the correct read on on what's what's likely going to happen especially when we talk about his performance in Ottawa on Wednesday night? I don't know about yo-yo. Yeah. You know,

11:30there is a world where Jacob Fowler does get set down because in the end, you know, if you're in the playoffs, there are very rarely do you have back-to-backs in the playoffs. Like that's, I think one series out of eight ends up with a back-to-back scenario. So I'm not, I don't see that being an issue. So you could ride Dolbesh who has a really good record mind you. So you could see what you have in him. I think the next, you know, handful of games is going to be very telling us to who the the the organizations true number one is. And then they're going to kind of ride that goalie into into the playoffs. So could we see him sent down? Yes, that is something that he told me point blank that he would be prepared for if if it were to happen. And I feel like like we talked about it the earlier in the episode, he may very well come be called right back up. And, you know, a lot of people will be like, well, why don't the Canadians just wave Samuel Montenbo, for example? Well, the thing is is that you can't actually wave a player that

12:37stayed on your roster past the trade deadline. So Patrick Linae, you can't wave him and send him to Lavala. It doesn't happen. Samuel Montenbo, you can't wave him and send him to Lavala. You can try to wave them for the purposes of having another team pick them up. But if that team picks up the player, that player is disqualified from playing for the rest of the season. That's right. There's no point. And then I'm also, you know, the other argument I get is, well, you could still complete trades after the trade deadline is just the player isn't eligible for the playoffs. This is true. But there is no non-playoff team that is going to acquire a Patrick Linae or a Samuel Montenbo without incentive at this stage. So the Canadians, is it harder? Yes. Is it impossible? No. This is where Sean's good friend John said what makes his money. And it's going to be being able to follow the cap dollars just like we've broken down because the Canadians are going to have enough cap to keep Jacob Fowler and have a three goalie rotation.

13:42And by next week, have enough cap to call up another player if need be. And that cap space will just continue to become bigger and bigger and bigger as we get into the later stages of March. And again, that brings us now to Michael Hage. Exactly. Michael Hage is going to be a very serious thing that could be of topic, possibly in two weeks from now, when we have the big 10 regional, like the NCAA, I guess, regionals. So the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. So in a world, does a world exist where the Canadians can afford to have Fowler, Rhinebacker, both with the team and then Michael Hage's collegiate season ends and now he joins the team. Does it, does, does those monies work with those three players under the current cap space that Canadians have left today? Not yet, which is the best answer I can give.

14:43But what it means is if the Canadians, for example, were to call up David Rhinebacker, not this weekend coming up at the next, they would have enough cap space to keep David Rhinebacker on the roster for the entirety of the season, because mind you, they could all send him back down and they probably would. Right. But you would, you would have enough room to call him up for a cup of coffee, send him back down in the time that he is down between the time that he's down and Michael Hage signs, you're a crewing cap space and you'd have enough room for Michael Hage. If Michael, like this, basically, this is how it works for Michael Hage. He has two options. Option number one, he signs his entry level contract. The moment is collegiate season ends. How early can that be? March 28th or 29th or April 10th or 11th? Okay. We're sorry, 9th or 11th. Those are the two windows in which he is season can end. If it's the latter and Michigan gets to the frozen four, which is the semi-final and final of the NCAA championship, he would likely only be able to suit up for the

15:47last game of the season against the Philadelphia Flyers. So that means he'd probably be, you know, on the Canadians roster for three or four days, which at a maximum rookie salary of $975,000 means that he's going to count for about 20,000. Okay. So then that answers my other question. I had two stupid questions, right? I'm filled with them. That's not really stupid. So Hage gets called up, signs his first pro contract and he plays a game or he plays two games. He immediately counts against the cap. And then what happens? Even if he doesn't play a game, even if he doesn't play a game. Okay, even if he doesn't. But what happens? Is that essentially are they burning the first year of the contract? As soon as they sign me if he plays one or two games, he's burned one year. Because he turns 20 before September 16th of this calendar year, his signing age for the collective bargaining agreement is 20. Even though he's 19,

16:52freshman, he's still 19. And what that means is he burns the first year of his contract. Yeah, he turns, he might actually, in fact, he might actually be able to sign his entry level contract on his birthday. Yeah. Which, I mean, the signing the signing age and the age age would actually be the same. What that does, yes, you lose the first year of his contract. But as we saw with Elaine Hudson and as we'll see with Ivan Demidov, when you burn the first year of your contract, if you play less than 10 games, NHL regular season and playoffs combined, because this is an important thing to remember, then that player is not eligible for offer sheets at the end of their entry level contract. It's the reason why Elaine Hudson signed for so little because they knew that there was no, there was no alternative waiting for them at the end of the season. The only team they could negotiate with between July 1st, 2025, and the summer of 2026 was the Montreal

17:52Canadians. Well, the same applies in this case with Michael Hage. Yes, you'd lose a cost-controlled year, but you'd also get to sign him faster. And as we've seen with Kent Hughes, that's not necessarily a problem when it comes to contract negotiations. I mean, what would you put the percentage at that Michael Hage when the Michigan season is over that that he makes the leap in turns pro? Well, listen, I've you know, I've spoke to those around him that said that they're open to all situations. If they feel like he's not going to get any kind of playing time whatsoever and management strongly advocates to him going to the American Hockey League, that may actually be a thing. But on the flip side, you know, if he plays the one game to end the season and then it's just around the NHL team during the playoffs, and if there's an injury he draws in. Well, that's a lot of experience and it helps them learn about the team. It practices with the players. Martijn

18:54Saint Louis gets to know him a little bit better. He gets to know the trainers. He gets to know the area. And then he comes back in September and he's able to hit the ground running. If he is in fact NHL ready. So there are pros and cons on each side. My two cents, I'd love to see what he can do in an Lava rocket playoff run. But, but it's extremely rare to see top end first round picks in the NCAA go the NHL route. Usually you see that for like goalies as we saw with Jacob Baller last year. That's right. Or you see that with, you know, like the Jaden Strubles of this world, guys that are picked second, third, fourth round that maybe don't have the star power of a Michael Hage. Michael Hage is one of the highest scoring players in college hockey right now. A first-round pick like they can they they can have some demands, right? And it's the same thing if with Cole Coffield, for example, if those that remember Cole Coffield back in the day in 2021, Cole Coffield signed his entry-level contract right away because obviously won the

19:56Hobie Baker and played with the Canadians back then the the schedule was elongated into like I believe mid-May. If I'm not mistaken, so he had he had some time to get used to it and then was played in the playoffs, right? It's kind of the same mold. Players like that burn their first year of the NHL deal almost immediately like it's it's almost an automatic. I think the last high profile first-round pick from the NCAA that didn't immediately burn their their their the first year of their contract out of college was Dylan Larkin and if not Zach Worenski. And those are those guys were drafted over 10 years ago. Right. Just to give you an idea. That's all starting to make sense. I think it's all well explained. And I guess the other thing is I mean Michael Hage's game like you just referenced you know one of the more more dynamic offensive players in the NCAA you know physically and his game. You're honest opinion. Is it is it pro ready?

20:59See ready. Pro ready. Yes. Okay. Pro ready. Yes. NHL ready. I think he has the I think he has the processor to play in the NHL. Does he have the RAM? Interesting. Okay. And so I think that's where you know the next couple of games are going to be indicative in the NCAA championship rounds and whatnot. It'll be I think when all is said and done I think the can if the Canadians liked Michael Hage so much to make him a borderline untouchable piece in trade talks at the deadline. I don't know I I don't know how he doesn't how how his clan doesn't end up with a with an entry level contract out of the NCAA. But again I stress and this surprised me. They are willing to consider all options when it comes to Michael Hage so they're not limiting themselves to entry level contract or bust. Okay. Good stuff. Professor Domingo. Class is Professor Domingo's out. Thanks brother.

22:01Good stuff as always. I hope everybody understood that. I think that was calmly and slowly explained and now we've got Marco back. Professor Domingo is retired back. There was almost a professor Domingo. I stopped at my masters. Considered the PhD but what a grind. Yeah. What a grind. And at least I don't have to call you a doctor. I mean I don't know if I could have survived that doctor Domingo in in office. Do you imagine? My there is only going to be one doctor Domingo and that's my sister. Was that right? MD or PhD? MDDS. Huh? MD. Oh, Fanta. I love that. I love six high achieving successful people. Good stuff brother. All right, man. Thank you for that. I think the audience and I'll speak for myself. I appreciate that and I hope you guys did too. I will catch you on the weekend when the Montreal Canadians double dip against the California teams this time. They're coming here at the ice storm. Thank you. Thank you everybody and please take two Tylenol at the end of this episode. Have a good day, y'all. Bye.