With the signing of Jesse Ylonen, the Montreal Canadiens have no more players to get under contract. This gives them 26 players under contract to fill out their 23-man roster to start next season, which also creates a massive issue for general manager (GM) Kent Hughes. With all the injuries last season, many of the young prospects got valuable playing time in the NHL and rightfully earned spots on the roster. Most of these players are waiver exempt, meaning they can easily play with Montreal or their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Laval Rocket, without being claimed by another team. Players like Rem Pitlick, Ylonen, Jonathan Kovacevic and Micheal Pezzetta are not waiver eligible, meaning if they are to be sent to Laval, they will have to pass through waivers and possibly be claimed. If Hughes wants to play his young guys in the NHL while not losing players for nothing, he has to make at least a few more moves before the start of the season.
Space Must Be Made For Youth
Last year the Canadiens were decimated by injuries for the third straight season. This allowed many of Montreal’s prospects to get NHL experience and prove they were ready for the show. Defencemen like Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Arber Xhekaj, and Justin Barron played almost an entire season. All four players should be allowed to play in the NHL and not be sent to Laval simply because of their waiver eligibility, even with Chris Wideman and Kovacevic needing to pass through waivers. Technically all eight defencemen could stay in Montreal, but they would have to sacrifice forwards to make room.
The forward group is going the most challenging part of the team to make room for due to the high contracts of some of the bottom-six players. Mike Hoffman and Joel Armia are two players that will be hard to move because of their high-priced contracts. This creates a log jam and difficulty getting ice time in Montreal with Pitlick, Juraj Slafkovsky, Pezzetta, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Ylonen. If the Canadiens go with eight defencemen and 13 forwards, they would need to put at least three players in Laval. Christian Dvorak‘s injury could make this easier, at least for the first couple of weeks until he returns, where they only need to send two. The easy options are Harvey-Pinard and Slafkosky because of their waiver conditions. That still leaves one of Pitlick, Ylonen or Pezzetta needing to pass waivers and possibly being lost for nothing when Dvorak returns.
Canadiens Will Want to Keep Their Young Players
When push comes to shove, the Canadiens will want to keep their young players and not risk losing them for nothing. Saying that, the only way this can happen is if Hughes makes more moves before the season starts. Hoffman is in the last year of his contract, so the odds of him going to Laval are slim to none; no matter how much fans don’t like it, he will be in Montreal when the season starts. Believe it or not, he can still bring an asset back to the Canadiens at the trade deadline. It may not be much, but it will be something more than if he gets buried in Laval; odds are, they get nothing for him. Armia could be waived, probably not get picked up due to his contract, then play out the season in Laval. This could work similarly to what happened with Karl Alzner, who spent the rest of his contract in Laval until he was bought out.
Related: Canadiens Fans Need to Lower Expectations For Harvey-Pinard
With Armia in Laval, that gives another spot to one of the young forwards. Slafkovsky probably will begin the season in Montreal with Armia gone and Dvorak injured, leaving all but one of the younger players with a spot on the team. Piltlick could be the odd man out here, but his low contract could see him claimed off waivers, which wouldn’t be that much of a loss, but once again, Hughes doesn’t like losing a player for nothing. Harvey-Pinard, Pezzetta and Ylonen are players the Habs will want to keep and not risk losing unless it’s in a way they can receive assets for them. Even with waiving Armia, they will still need to make room for at least one more player.
Canadiens Need to Make a Move Before Season
If the Canadiens want room for their young players, they must move before the season starts. Who the move will be is the question. The usual suspects are, of course, Hoffman and Armia. Armia is probably impossible to move with a $3.4 million annual average value (AAV) for the next two seasons. That’s just too much for a fourth-line player that only really kills penalties. Hoffman is more reasonable with only a year left, but Montreal may have to eat some of his $4.5 million AAV, and they are already eating some of Joel Edmundson’s contract. They may not want to limit themselves this early in the season. If he has a reasonably good season, Hoffman could be more valuable at the trade deadline.
Dvorak’s name has also been thrown around, and if healthy, he would probably be a very reasonable player to move, especially to a team looking for center depth — looking at you, Boston. His $4.46 AAV is steep, but he can be used in all areas, including the power play and penalty kill, and is very good at faceoffs with a career 52.4 percent. The issue is he could be injured to start the season and may be more of a Christmastime move than a before-the-season move; if that’s the case, a waiver-eligible player like Harvey-Pinard or one of the defencemen can play in Laval for the time Dvorak is in the lineup. Pitlick could be an easy player to move with a $1.1 AAV and a year left on his contract. If there is no room for him, Hughes could trade him for an asset instead of risking waivers.
The Canadiens have options. Some are better made later in the season or unreasonable due to contracts. If Hughes wants the young players to play in Montreal, the moves must be made before the season to make room or, in Dvorak’s case, soon after he returns. Nothing stops him from moving a young player like Ylonen or Kovacevic, but that will probably have to wait until training camp, where they can better evaluate who they want.
