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Canadiens Sign Vinzenz Rohrer

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The Canadiens have signed one of their prospects, announcing today that they’ve inked forward Vinzenz Rohrer to a three-year, entry-level contract.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The 20-year-old was a third-round pick by Montreal back in 2022, going 75th overall.  He remained with OHL Ottawa the following season, posting 19 goals and 30 assists in 54 games before deciding to change things up.  Instead of staying for what likely would have been his final year of major junior, Rohrer instead decided to turn pro, inking a two-year deal with Zurich in Switzerland.

Rohrer put up 19 points in 49 games in 2023-24, decent numbers for a teenager playing in the pros.  That was enough to earn a one-year extension with Zurich, putting him under contract through 2025-26.  He followed that up with 15 goals and 10 assists in 52 games this season before adding seven points in 16 playoff contests.  Instead of joining Montreal’s farm team in Laval after that for their playoff run, Rohrer went to the World Championship with Austria and fared well with them, collecting four goals and two assists in eight games as they made it to the quarterfinals.

In a release from Zurich (Twitter link), the Lions noted that while Rohrer will attend training camp with the Canadiens this fall, he will report back to Zurich if the team sends him down to the minors.  This means that the contract has a European Assignment Clause for the upcoming season; if Rohrer ultimately is sent back, he will still count against Montreal’s contract limit of 50 while he’s too old to have the contract slide.

Brandon Gignac Signs In Swiss League

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Rather than test free agency next month, pending UFA Brandon Gignac has decided to head overseas.  EHC Kloten in Switzerland announced that they’ve inked the center to a two-year contract.

The 27-year-old was originally drafted by New Jersey in the third round back in 2016.  However, playing time was hard to come by at the top level as he made just one NHL appearance with them before being non-tendered in 2021.

That brought him to Montreal’s farm team on a minor-league deal, one that he was able to convert to a two-year, two-way NHL pact in 2023-24.  When that happened, Gignac got into seven games with the Canadiens, scoring once while logging a little under 12 minutes a night of playing time.  Meanwhile, he had a career year in the AHL with Laval that season, notching 55 points in 61 games.

Coming off that season, there was some thought that Gignac could push for a back-of-the-roster spot with Montreal this year or at least be in line for a recall when injuries arise.  However, after clearing waivers in training camp, Gignac suffered a long-term injury that caused him to miss 53 games, putting an end to any hopes of a promotion.  He returned for the playoffs and had just three points in 12 games.

Knowing that an NHL opportunity likely wasn’t going to be on the table this summer, Gignac’s options likely would have been limited to two-way offers next month.  Instead of taking another one of those, he’ll now try his hand in a new league altogether.

Lane Hutson Earns All-Rookie Nod

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D Lane Hutson (Canadiens) – Joining Wolf as another unanimous selection to the 2024-25 All-Rookie Team, Hutson was this year’s Calder Trophy winner. Scoring six goals and 66 points in 82 games while averaging 22:44 of ice time per game, Hutson joined Bobby Orr, Brian Leetch, and Quinn Hughes as the only defensemen to lead rookies in scoring during their respective inaugural campaigns.

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Canucks Have Shown Interest In Marco Rossi

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A handful of Canadian teams have spoken with the Wild regarding pending RFA center Marco Rossi, but the Canucks are the club with the highest level of interest in the youngster, writes Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. LeBrun adds the Flames have also expressed a mild degree of interest but are looking for a pivot with more size to complement their top six, while the Canadiens have kicked tires but haven’t been remotely progressive in their pursuit.

Rossi is one of the biggest names to watch on the trade market over the next few weeks, especially among centers, unless Vancouver decides to shop their own Elias Pettersson again before his no-trade clause takes effect on July 1. Minnesota has been more aggressively soliciting calls on Rossi since the season ended, after previously denying they were looking to move the 23-year-old pivot. There’s been widespread interest so far, but no team has emerged as a true frontrunner.

That’s due mostly to Rossi’s disinterest in a bridge deal and a desire for a long-term contract worth $49MM over seven years for a $7MM cap hit, according to reports. He’s coming off a strong platform year, finally elevated into consistent top-six deployment and responding with a 24-36–60 scoring line in 82 games despite not having superstar Kirill Kaprizov available on his wing for half of the season. He was second on the Wild in points and only three goals behind Matt Boldy for the team lead. He also hasn’t missed a game since emerging as a full-time NHL option in 2023-24, a notable development for someone who experienced significant post-COVID complications shortly after being drafted No. 9 overall by the Wild in 2020.

Rossi’s leap in production, especially since he was able to shoulder the responsibility of being Minnesota’s top center for a decent portion of the campaign with Joel Eriksson Ek missing time as well, still points to the Austrian having a point-per-game ceiling (or close to it). There’s one limiting factor he has to overcome: his size. Checking in at 5’9″ and 182 lbs, teams generally prefer to have that type of skillset on the wing. Whether justifiable or not, his evaluation by the Wild has been negatively impacted. His minutes were slashed in the postseason as he was reduced to a fourth-line role, still managing three points in six games against the Golden Knights despite seeing a decrease of over seven minutes per game from his regular-season deployment.

The lack of cost certainty and the fact that Rossi only has two full years of NHL experience also hurt, not help, his trade value. As such, it’s hard to identify a solid comparable deal to speculate a return. The Wild have no intention of taking a step back in their competitiveness level next season, though, so as Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff speculated earlier this month, they won’t just be looking for futures in return. If they’re losing center depth, they’ll look to bolster their skill on the wings to compensate.

Few destinations make more sense for Rossi than Vancouver. The Canucks are in desperate need of more offensive depth at every forward position but particularly at center, where they took a temporary hit by swapping J.T. Miller for Filip Chytil in an in-season blockbuster with the Rangers. Slotting in Rossi as their No. 2 center behind Pettersson, as they await the latter’s return to form, would allow Chytil to drop down to a much more comfortable third-line role to begin 2025-26 and give Vancouver three legitimate scoring threats down the middle.

It’s unclear who Minnesota might want in return on the wing, though. They’d presumably prefer a similarly-aged piece to Rossi but the Canucks wouldn’t likely value him high enough to deem him worth parting ways with top prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki. A return based around the 23-year-old Nils Höglander, plus other assets to equal Rossi’s higher trade value, would be more realistic.

That’s a decent step back in offensive ceiling for Minnesota, but Höglander is cost-controlled at a $3MM cap hit through 2027-28. That would still allow the Wild to be aggressive in pursuing a name like Matt Duchene or Mikael Granlund in free agency to replace Rossi down the middle, while the Canucks would still open up more flexbility compared to a futures-based return and might still have the space to pursue a replacement for Höglander on the wing on the open market.

Canadiens, Penguins, Red Wings Interested In Nicolas Hague

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Nicolas Hague’s trade market continues to percolate. The Canadiens, Penguins, and Red Wings have joined the previously reported Flyers in demonstrating interest in the Golden Knights’ pending RFA defenseman’s services, according to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period today. Pagnotta added that the Golden Knights have informed Hague’s camp their focus is on a trade rather than a new contract, although a move is “not a guarantee.”

Hague is an intriguing option for teams looking to add a lefty who can cycle into top-four minutes amid a rather weak UFA market. He would slot in the third tier of available left-shot rearguards if he were old enough for unrestricted free agency, along with names like Brian Dumoulin, Matt Grzelcyk, Ryan Lindgren, and Nate Schmidt. He is, of course, younger than all of those options and, although he’s 26 years old, may still have a bit of room to grow into a steadier second-pairing piece. He’s projected to receive a two-year deal worth north of $2.6MM per season this summer, according to AFP Analytics. While that’s a tad prohibitive for the Golden Knights, who have bigger moves in mind, it won’t be a salary-cap hurdle for nearly every interested party.

The 6’6″ defender was Vegas’ own second-round pick in their inaugural 2017 draft class. Hague has spent his entire career in Nevada, almost exclusively as the left-shot option on their third pairing. Buried on the depth chart for years behind Brayden McNabb and now Noah Hanifin as well, his ice time took a small hit this year, averaging 17 minutes per game following three years of seeing 18-plus per game.

A steady 10-20 point producer, that’s not why teams are interested. He’s a good fringe second-pairing option with PK deployability, size, physicality, and historically strong possession metrics. ’Historically’ is doing some heavy lifting there, though. His two-way play wasn’t particularly adept in 2024-25, at least at even strength. His -4.9% relative shot-attempt share was a career-low, especially considering he received rather even offensive and defensive zone deployment. His control of possession quality (expected goals) also fell below 50% at even strength for the first time in his six-year career.

There’s enough of a track record there for reasonable optimism surrounding a rebound, though. The Ontario native enters the summer with 83 points and a +20 rating in 364 career regular-season games, and he logged 18:34 per night in Vegas’ run to the 2023 Stanley Cup.

Perhaps no team among those mentioned needs a cost-effective player like Hague more than Detroit. Negative-value signings on defense over the past few years have hampered their ability to exit their rebuild, with aging names like Ben Chiarot and Justin Holl incapable of having success in anything above a third-pairing role. Hague, while untested in 20-plus minute deployment, would be a younger, cheaper, and better-skating option than any of those other supplemental pieces behind young core defenders Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson.

There’s also a clear need for Hague’s services in Pittsburgh. While the Penguins are under far less pressure to contend for a playoff spot in 2025-26 than the Red Wings, they simply need more defenders in the system to avoid overdeploying their younger prospects while also ideally having the flexibility to move on from Erik Karlsson and begin winding down Kris Letang’s workload.  The Pens need another pickup on top of just Hague to accomplish that, but he’d go a long way toward helping and would immediately become their top left-shot option ahead of a paper-thin group behind him.

Hague would see a more familiar depth role in Montreal if that’s where he ends up. His acquisition is less about shifting him into top-four deployment – Kaiden Guhle, Lane Hutson, and Mike Matheson are all lefties and have that covered. It would be more about flexing enforcer Arber Xhekaj into a No. 6/7 role while having Hague replace him as the everyday left-shot option on their third pairing.

Canadiens’ Lane Hutson Wins 2025 Calder Trophy

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Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson has been voted the 2025 Calder Memorial Trophy winner as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year, the league announced Tuesday.

It’s a fitting honor for Hutson, whose historic first season helped fuel Montreal to its first playoff berth in four years. His 60 assists and 66 points broke Hall-of-Famer Chris Chelios’ franchise records of 55 and 64, respectively, by a Canadiens defenseman in his first NHL season.

That offensive dominance by the 5’9″ rearguard, who fell to Montreal with the 62nd overall pick of the 2022 draft due to some overreactionary concerns about his diminutive frame, made him a clear No. 1 ROTY in voters’ eyes. While he wasn’t a unanimous first-place vote, 165 of 191 (86.4%) of ballots had him in the top slot, relays Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group. No one else received first-place votes out of the other finalists for the award, Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf (15) and Sharks center Macklin Celebrini (11).

There was a clear demarcation between the top four and the rest of the pack. Outside of the finalists, only Flyers winger Matvei Michkov (eight second-place votes, 26 third-place votes) landed a top-three spot on voters’ ballots. The full voting breakdown, which involves a 10-7-5-3-1 points allocation as standard, is as follows:

  1. Hutson – 1,832 (165-26-0-0-0)
  2. Wolf – 1,169 (15-96-59-17-1)
  3. Celebrini – 1,104 (11-61-106-12-1)
  4. Michkov – 645 (0-8-26-151-6)
  5. F Cutter Gauthier (Ducks) – 92 (0-0-0-6-74)
  6. F Will Smith (Sharks) – 62 (0-0-0-2-56)
  7. F Logan Stankoven (Hurricanes) – 22 (0-0-0-2-16)
  8. F Zachary Bolduc (Blues) – 20 (0-0-0-1-17)
  9. F Jackson Blake (Hurricanes) – 9 (0-0-0-0-9)
  10. F Marco Kasper (Red Wings) – 7 (0-0-0-0-7)
  11. F Mackie Samoskevich (Panthers) – 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
  12. D Drew Helleson (Ducks) – 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
    D Denton Mateychuk (Blue Jackets) – 1 (0-0-0-0-1)

Hutson hitting the 60-assist plateau also tied him with Larry Murphy for the all-time record for most assists by a rookie rearguard and helped tie him for sixth in the league in scoring among all defenders this year with Lightning star Victor Hedman. He was the most efficient point-producer of the top nine highest-scoring defenders, averaging the lowest time on ice of the group at 22:44 per game.

While he’ll need to be paired with a strong, defensively grounded partner at even strength to achieve his maximum effectiveness at his peak, something Montreal seems to have found by icing Kaiden Guhle on his off side, he’s set up well to serve as the Habs’ No. 1 defenseman for years to come as they exit their rebuild with their new core. He’s also the first Canadien to win the Calder since Hall-of-Fame goalie Ken Dryden in 1972.

Image courtesy of Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images.

Free Agent Focus: Montreal Canadiens

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Free agency is now under a month away, and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July, while many teams also have key restricted free agents to re-sign. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Canadiens.

Key Restricted Free Agents

G Jakub Dobes – Dobes’ NHL career couldn’t have gotten off to a better start. He won his first NHL start against the eventual Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers, stopping 34 of 34 shots. He finished the season with a 7-4-3 record in 15 starts with a .909 SV% and 2.74 GAA. If he were allowed to remove three difficult starts against the Rangers, Kings, and Kraken, Dobes would have finished the year with an impressive .924 SV%. Unfortunately for Dobes, with Sam Montembeault signed through the 2026-27 season and prospect Jacob Fowler rising through the ranks, he likely doesn’t have a long-term future with Montreal.

F Emil Heineman – Heineman came exactly as advertised to the Canadiens this season. Despite missing a chunk of games due to injury, the Leksand, Sweden native scored 10 goals and 18 points in 62 games, while averaging 11:24 of ice time per night. He was one of the most physical forwards on the team and managed solid possession metrics. Like many younger players, he has a few things to clean up in the defensive zone, which he’ll want to prioritize during offseason training if Martin St. Louis continues to utilize him in a defensive role next season.

D Jayden Struble – Struble serves as one of the more obvious non-tender candidates on the Canadiens’ roster. Montreal already has six defensemen signed through next season, and that’s without taking into account David Reinbacher competing for a spot on the roster during next year’s training camp. Still, Struble is an effective depth option, scoring two goals and 13 points in 56 games this past season while averaging nearly 15 minutes of ice time, with 124 hits.

Other RFAs: F Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, F Sean Farrell, F Xavier Simoneau, D Gustav Lindström, D Noel Hoefenmayer, D William Trudeau, G Cayden Primeau

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

F Christian Dvorak – Before the 2024-25 campaign, the Canadiens had been looking to offload Dvorak and his $4.45MM salary. Dvorak rewarded Montreal for keeping him, scoring 12 goals and 33 points in 82 games, while leading the team with a 55.6% faceoff percentage by a healthy margin. He’s becoming a better defensive player as he ages, and the Canadiens could use Dvorak’s skill set as a veteran player as they become more competitive, albeit at a far lower price point.

F Joel Armia – Similarly to Dvorak, Armia has been the subject of trade rumors for the last few years. Montreal went as far as to pass Armia through waivers at the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign in an attempt to rid themselves of his $3.4MM salary. In almost identical fashion, Armia rewarded the Canadiens for keeping him, scoring 11 goals and 29 points in 81 games, with many of those points coming at even strength. Still, Armia has significantly poorer possession metrics compared to his peers, and Montreal may look elsewhere for secondary scoring this offseason.

Other UFAs: F Michael Pezzetta, F Brandon Gignac, F Alex Barré-Boulet, G Connor Hughes

Projected Cap Space

The situation in Montreal becomes more convoluted when looking at their salary cap availability. The team only has around $6MM to spend, with much of their core intact. According to PuckPedia, the Canadiens already have 13 forwards, six defensemen, and two netminders penciled on next year’s roster. Still, if the Canadiens are looking to capitalize on their surprise return to the postseason this season, they could look to trade Carey Price’s contract with it’s $10.5MM (with a sweetener, of course) to a team like the San Jose Sharks, giving Montreal the capability to pursue nearly any player they’re interested in this summer.

Contract info courtesy of PuckPedia.

Photo courtesy of John Jones-Imagn Images

Canadiens’ Gustav Lindström Signs Five-Year Contract In SHL

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Djurgårdens IF of the Swedish Hockey League has signed Canadiens pending RFA defenseman Gustav Lindström to a five-year deal, the club announced. He’s now set to play in his home country through the 2029-30 season.

Lindström, a depth piece on the Red Wings’ blue line after they drafted him in the second round in 2017, was first picked up by Montreal ahead of the 2023-24 season in exchange for Jeff Petry. He was claimed off waivers by the Ducks mid-season, but after Anaheim didn’t issue him a qualifying offer, he returned to Montreal as a UFA signing at the beginning of the 2024-25 campaign.

The Canadiens waived Lindström to begin the year, and that was his most recent transaction. He spent the entire season in the minors for the first time since arriving in North America in 2019, recording a 4-7–11 scoring line with 28 PIMs and a +18 rating in 42 games for AHL Laval. Understandably, he’ll opt for more opportunity overseas in a more familiar environment.

Montreal can still issue Lindström a qualifying offer to retain his signing rights, but doing so would only keep him on their reserve list through June 30, 2026. Unless he desires an NHL return one year into his multi-year commitment to Djurgården, doing so would only take up a reserve list spot unnecessarily. It’s more likely they’ll non-tender him and let his exclusive NHL signing rights lapse.

The 6’2″ Lindström heads back home after posting a 5-30–35 scoring line with a -21 rating in 174 NHL games for Anaheim, Detroit, and Montreal between 2019-20 and 2023-24. He averaged 15:34 per game during his tenure with the three clubs.

Lindström’s only previous SHL experience came with Frölunda HC in the 2018-19 campaign, when he posted six points and a minus-five rating in 40 games while playing a depth role on the league’s championship club that year. He now joins a Djurgårdens team fresh off promotion following three years in the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. He’s the second pending NHL RFA they’ve picked up in the last few weeks, joining Predators winger Jesse Ylönen.

Offseason Checklist: Montreal Canadiens

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The offseason has arrived for all but two teams now with the playoffs nearing an end.  Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Montreal.

After three straight seasons of being near the basement in the standings, the expectation was that the Canadiens would take a step forward in 2024-25.  Instead, they may have taken more of a jump than expected as they ultimately secured the final playoff spot in the East before losing in five to Washington in the first round.  Now, GM Kent Hughes has some work to do this summer to help his young group take another step forward next season or at least to keep them in the middle of the pack once more.

Move Price’s Contract

While it might seem odd to start this piece with a discussion of a player who hasn’t played since 2022, Carey Price has been making an impact on this group since then and his contract hasn’t helped things.  He has been on LTIR for the last three years with a knee injury that he won’t be able to return from.  The Canadiens have had to dip into using LTIR every season since then.

When the team wasn’t too worried about wins and losses as they went through the tougher early stages of their rebuild, this wasn’t too big of a deal.  They had enough flexibility to recall players when needed and although there were bonus overage penalties, it didn’t matter much.  But now they enter next season with the second-highest carryover penalty in the league at over $1.75MM per PuckPedia and it’s a number that could go higher for 2025-26 depending on bonuses reached.

If Montreal can offload Price’s contract to a team looking to just get over the spending floor as has happened in the past with long-term LTIR players, the Canadiens could go back to banking in-season cap space and eliminate the potential for a carryover penalty.  It would also increase their regular spending room from around $8MM to $18MM, giving Hughes the ability to try to add a piece or two without having to worry about triggering going into LTIR once more.

But this is one of those files that needs to be figured out early and dealt with later.  Price has a $5.5MM signing bonus due that teams are going to want the Canadiens to pay.  But unlike most bonuses which are paid on July 1st, his is owed on September 1st.  After that, he has a $2MM base salary that insurance will cover the bulk of, making a trade much more palatable at that time.

That said, in order to add when most of the free agent signings and trades are made, Montreal would need to know by then if they have a deal in place to help shape their player movement.  Basically, they’ll be looking to reach an agreement on a deal in principle and then shelve it for at least two months.  If a move is agreed on, that would make it one of the first things they do this offseason and likely their last at the same time.

Work On Hutson Extension

Last summer, Montreal worked quickly to get contract extensions done with two of its core players, signing winger Juraj Slafkovsky (eight years, $7.6MM AAV) and defenseman Kaiden Guhle (six years, $5.55MM AAV).  In doing so, they kept their internal cap intact with both players signing for less than team captain Nick Suzuki ($7.875MM AAV).  Accomplishing that with their extension-eligible core piece this summer will be trickier with defenseman Lane Hutson eligible for a new contract as of July 1st.

Hutson’s first full NHL season was certainly a strong one.  He played in all 82 games and recorded six goals and 60 assists while logging a little under 23 minutes a night of ice time.  With 66 points, he finished tied with Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey for sixth in that category among blueliners league-wide.  In assists, he was tied with Quinn Hughes for second, only behind Cale Makar.  These are some of the top offensive blueliners in the league, players who received pretty substantial second contracts.  Meanwhile, he also led all NHL rookies in points, three ahead of Matvei Michkov and Macklin Celebrini.

There are some recent comparables to work with here.  Brock Faber (eight years, $8.5MM) and Owen Power (seven years, $8.35MM) come to mind while the second contracts to Makar (six years, $9MM) and Hughes (seven years, $7.85MM), while older, are probably worth noting as well.  The cap hit percentage of those deals ranges from 8.9% to 11%.  Knowing that the projected Upper Limit of the Salary Cap for 2026-27 is $104MM, that would approximate Hutson’s price tag between $9.256MM and $11.44MM.

Is that a price Montreal is willing to pay right now?  Would they be better waiting and seeing how things go next season?  It’s worth noting he won’t be eligible for an offer sheet which at least mitigates a bit of the risk of waiting.  Or, is Hughes able to find a lower-cost price tag that both sides are comfortable with now?

Add Second Center

Finding a reliable second-line center has been an issue for Montreal for several years now, dating back to before the current management regime.  And while Hughes has made a few attempts to solve that issue, none have managed to stick just yet.

First, Kirby Dach was brought in from Chicago with the hopes that a change of scenery could help him live up to his high draft billing.  Instead, he has dealt with significant injuries in all three years, missing more games than he has played in.  Alex Newhook was also acquired but he hasn’t been able to lock down a full-time spot down the middle yet and hasn’t produced enough to be a full-timer in the top six.  They also had Sean Monahan for a stretch but used him as a trade chip, acquiring a first-round pick to take him on and then dealt him for a first-round pick the following season.  While that was a tidy piece of business, it means that second pivot is still needed.

Internally, Jake Evans is more of a checker while prospects Oliver Kapanen and Owen Beck aren’t going to be ready to play in a top-six role next season, at least at the NHL level.  And while they have hopes that Dach can bounce back, depending on a healthy and productive season shouldn’t be their preferred option at this point; they’d be wise to try to address this externally.

The free agent market has several veterans that could fill a short-term stopgap type of role, including Matt Duchene, Mikael Granlund, John Tavares, and Claude Giroux if he doesn’t re-sign with Ottawa.  They’d undoubtedly inquire on Sam Bennett if he makes it to free agency as well.  Failing that, Hughes will have to turn to trying to fill that spot via the trade route once again.

Add Veteran Right-Shot Defenseman

David Savard wasted little time ending any speculation about his future plans when he announced before the playoffs that he’d be retiring.  That opens up one spot on Montreal’s back end to fill.  Notably, his departure means that midseason acquisition Alexandre Carrier is the only right-shot defender on their roster at the moment.  While teams can get away with having two instead of three, only having one is a little more difficult to navigate.

It’s worth noting that Montreal’s top two defensive prospects, David Reinbacher and Logan Mailloux, are both right-shot players.  Mailloux saw a handful of NHL games this season while Reinbacher was injured for most of it but is playing a big role with AHL Laval in the playoffs.  It’s possible that management envisions one of them filling in Savard’s role and leaving it at that.

However, that would mean going with just two defensemen above the age of 25 to start next season.  That’s fine when you’re rebuilding but a lot riskier when you’re trying to push for a playoff spot.  Accordingly, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to find a short-term veteran who could fill a similar role to Savard while also hedging against Mailloux and Reinbacher needing more development time.  Ideally, that player would be a strong penalty killer as Savard logged more than three minutes per game shorthanded this season.

It’s not a great UFA class for right-shot, low-term veterans so this is also something they may want to look at the trade market for if they think one of Mailloux or Reinbacher will be ready soon.  Alternatively, they can go for someone on a two-year or a three-year deal and shuffle things around if and when the youngsters are ready.  Regardless of what route they take, adding at least a short-term stopgap on the right side of the back end is something they should be looking to do.

Photo courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.

Hutson's Extension Might Not Get Done Right Away This Summer

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  • While Lane Hutson will be eligible for a contract extension this summer, Arpon Basu of The Athletic posits (subscription link) that this file might not get done right away. The Canadiens have tried to keep their core players signing below captain Nick Suzuki’s $7.875MM but Hutson’s rookie year, his comparable players, plus the big increases coming in the salary cap will make that difficult.  It’s possible Montreal opts for a shorter-term pact to keep the AAV lower but it could also make sense to see what happens next year and decide from there.  Hutson, a Calder Trophy finalist, had six goals and 60 assists in 82 games this season.

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