NHL would have refused a trade between Montreal and Arizona including Shea Weber's contract at the trade deadline

On Monday, at his post-trade deadline media availability, Kent Hughes transparently stated something very interesting. He admitted that Shea Weber's contract was very close to being traded but that he had not been able to come to an agreement.

Today we learn, as reported by Steve Dangle, that the Coyotes did attempt to acquire Weber's contract, but the league reportedly declined the deal. See the video here

Weber has four years left on his contract, with a cap hit of $7.9 million per season. The team that takes him on, however, will only have to pay him $6 million in actual salary during that time. This seems like a great option for a team trying to reach the salary cap like the Arizona Coyotes. However, the league would have decided otherwise.

So the Coyotes really wanted Weber's contract, but the NHL said it would be bad publicly for the NHL. Instead, the Coyotes traded a fourth round pick for Bryan Little's contract and the rights to unsigned NCAA player Nathan Smith.


Because it was Winnipeg and not Montreal, they thought the fallout would be less severe...

Thanks to our friends at HockeyPatrol for the discovery.