Absolutely agree Gal_.

I've analyzed every and which way it might be worth a team taking on these 2 guy's contracts and the best I could come up with are these 2 scenarios:

Desharnais (Ret. 500k) to Arizona for Vitale and a pick. Habs get cap relief and pick, Coyotes get much improved player for reasonably cheap cap increase.

Emelin (Ret. 500k) plus 3rd/4th pick 2017 to Dallas for Hemsky. Habs retain a bit of salary but lose the second year of Emelin's contract. Dallas gets a rugged dman they seem to be lacking on they backend and signing a current quality UFA might mean they have to throw 4M+ for 4 years on replacements where as Emelin is only this year and next. Dallas might lose 2 solid UFA's in Goligoski and Russell and they need some toughness in place of some finesse, so losing Hemsky isn't a huge loss for them since they already are a top offensive team as is. Habs get a RW to help set up Galchenyuk and Pacioretty on the top line and cap relief the following year.


This is my most hopeful scenario:

To NJ
Emelin + Desharnais (50% retained) + low level prospect like Max Friberg + low draft pick like 6th-7th rounder

for

To MTL
Ryane Clowe
Rights to Jon Merrill (Or other prospect/pick/low cap hit player - the point is to take on as little cap in return as possible)


Equal money being paid out to both teams so no change for payroll. Only difference comes in cap relief. Clowe is on permanent LTIR so that gives us full cap relief of his contract but we still pay out the remaining of his contract and Merrill is a secondary prospect who hasn't done very much yet so this is a downgrade for Habs in terms of quality return but now the Habs don't have Emelin's cap, we don't have Clowe's cap (LTIR), we only have 50% of DD's cap for the remainder of this year and Merrill should come in at roughly 900K. This gives MTL plenty of cap space to make a splash in free agency. The big names aren't signing with Devils seeing as they aren't exactly the cup contender team and won't be spending up to the cap either so they're chance of landing a big fish is some what limited. Maybe they make this trade once they know for sure they are out of the running for a guy like Stamkos for example.

This trade would be similar to the Clarkson for Horton trade a couple years ago. One team has the money to pay for a retiree player and just uses the cap relief as payment while the other team continues to spend that money (and cap though) but gets something out of it instead. NJ isn't spending up to the cap limit so the cap relief they get from Clowe on LTIR wouldn't help them anyway so its just wasted cap space for them. Both DD and Emelin are upgrades on current players they have also. Both contracts are almost over as well and can be used as trade bait at the trade deadlines. This is a win/win scenario.

DD and Eller make the same money. But Eller scores 0.3 per game overall, has very few assists for a center, minus -33, 301 PIM. DD scores 0.6, distributes puck better, plus +31, 130 PIM and is UFA next year.
With Eller traded now and DD for a pick next year, MTL gets the cap space they will need for Galchenyuk and Beaulieu next year.