Kent Hughes is still in trouble and another major trade is expected to be announced

He has said it many times in press conferences, he wants to give himself space under the NHL salary cap.

A very important room for maneuver for the Habs.

After several solid trades and parting with the contracts of Tyler Toffoli, Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Alexander Romanov and Artturi Lehkonen (who were going to command big salary increases), Kent Hughes is still in hot water.

With the trade of Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Montreal Canadiens saved a few dollars on the payroll, but not enough.

With the additions of Dadonov, Matheson and the signings of Juraj Slafkovsky, Rem Pitlick and Samuel Montembeault, the CH is officially still in trouble.

Kent Hughes is currently $250,000 under the salary cap and he still needs to sign his new young center, Kirby Dach, which he will surely do.

All of this is not to mention the very complicated and complex situation with goalie Carey Price.

Also, let's remember that the Tricolore's GM has openly mentioned that he wants to acquire another right-handed defenseman for next season.

What should we keep in mind from all this? Kent Hughes is still in trouble with his payroll and we should definitely expect at least one other important trade by September.

This could involve a winger like Mike Hoffman, Jonathan Drouin, or Evgeny Dadonov. Which one do you think we should get?

It will be interesting to watch, but Hughes and the CH are still not out of the woods, even after completing some good trades.

It says a lot about the challenge of lowering the CH's payroll for the new boss!

Credit: GoHabsGo