I don't think the habs will run a full taxi squad and are definitely not waiving Perry or Frolik having just signed them. More likely would be running this

Tatar-Danault-Gallagher
Drouin-Suzuki-Anderson
Toffoli-Kotkaniemi-Armia
Byron-Evans\Poehling-Lehkonen

Chiarot-Weber
Edmundson-Petry
Kulak-Romanov

extras

Perry
Frolik

Taxi
Weal
Mete
McNiven
Ouellet

then on off days they send Suzuki and KK to the taxi squad to build up some daily cap until they can carry 23 players

Evans is waiver exempt. Does that help at all?

I would never put Mete on waivers. Rather just put Frolik

I don't link the idea of it either but I don't think MB will like putting one of the two guys he just signed on waivers either.

I think he'd rather keep his 22 yo dman. Frolik has also stated that he know that he has to fight for a roster spot, he was probably expecting a possibility of being relegated

My understanding is we don't need to worry about performance bonuses - this is from this site:

"What is a Performance Bonus?

A Performance Bonus can be given to a player in addition to their salary. Performance bonuses are only paid to the player if they meet the requirements as defined by the bonus. Performance bonuses count against the salary cap; however, a team can exceed the salary cap due to performance bonuses by the maximum performance bonus cushion amount of 7.5 percent of the upper limit. Not all players are eligible for Performance Bonuses, and to receive a bonus within their contract, a player must meet one of the following criteria:The player is on an entry-level contract.The player has signed a one-year contract and is over 35 years old.The player has signed a one-year contract after returning from a long-term injury (has played 400 or more games, and spent 100 or more days on the Injured Reserve in the last year of their most recent contract)."

To me that means MTL can max out their cap and still pay out $6.1125M in performance bonuses, no?

Not really, since he’s by far our best option for our 4C.

We can’t be put over the cap by performance bonuses, but any remaining bonuses over the cap in one year carry over to the next year. So this would cause us to have even less cap space next year, a year where we need it way more than we do now.