Montreal Canadiens forward Joel Armia seems safe at this point, at least as far as another potential demotion to the American Hockey League is concerned. There is undeniable potential general manager GM Kent Hughes trades him this offseason as he enters the last year of his contract, but getting sent down again after he was named the team’s Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy candidate for successfully making his way back up to the NHL? That’s just not going to happen.
Related: Canadiens GM Hughes’ Top Priorities for 2024 Offseason
Truth be told, it’s unlikely to happen to any veteran in this current group of Canadiens forwards. Armia is the unlikeliest of the bunch (in terms of realistic candidates) for the reason just stated. Taking into account the fact Hughes would realistically like to get something in exchange for him (instead of losing him for nothing as a soon-to-be pending unrestricted free agent), it makes no sense to devalue him on the trade market, when objectively speaking he had (re)built himself up with a career-high 17-goal season to the point his $3.4 million cap hit actually does (make sense).
There is a risk Hughes could wait too long to trade Armia. His trademark inconsistency could rear its ugly head once more, as he plummets back down to Earth as the player who opened 2022-23 with only three assists in his first 26 games. However, he’s at the very least earned the benefit of the doubt and a start to 2024-25 in the NHL, whether it’s with the Canadiens or another team (that will have gone to the trouble of acquiring him, because they presumably want him to a degree).
Armia vs. Anderson
However, this is far from a Josh Anderson situation, where Hughes will arguably come to regret not striking when the iron is hot, having taken multiple calls on the power forward in the past according to TSN (only to see his value plummet). There are multiple differences between the two players in fact. For instance, failing to trade Anderson in the past is an indication Hughes saw him as part of the Canadiens’ future. He still has three seasons left, albeit at a less-than-ideal $5.5 million cap hit.
If the Canadiens deemed it worthwhile to keep Anderson in the fold when he was only scoring 32 points per season for them, they’re well aware of his production limitations. So, while a trade would be great, they’re not going to demote him after he just scored 20. At just 30, Anderson is young enough, to turn it around and get back to the production to which fans had grown accustomed. Thirty points should not be out of reach.
As a result, not only is Anderson staying on the NHL roster, but the Habs are likely going to give him every opportunity to succeed. Top-six deployment shouldn’t be out of the question. After all, seeing as the general consensus is Anderson’s value can’t get any lower, they have little to lose seeing what he has to offer there, at least for a limited time.
It’s obviously different with Armia. There’s no logical way he stays with the Canadiens past 2024-25. There’s no reason to re-sign him at Age 32 when he’s proven to max out at ~30 points and as a bottom-six forward.
While that’s kind of why Anderson has disappointed, maxing out at ~30 points as a top-six forward (albeit with 20 of those having been goals in the past), he does admittedly bring more physicality to the line-up. If the Canadiens can unlock the offensive potential he has that Armia simply no longer does, it would obviously go a long way to further establishing the Habs as contenders. Granted, no one should count on that happening with Anderson. However in the absence of any viable alternative option, it’s something for which to hope.
Canadiens Shouldn’t Say No to a Dvorak Trade
For that reason, Anderson is one of two veterans the Canadiens need to rebound from poor seasons in 2024-25. For those curious, Brendan Gallagher was left off because by his current standards his 16-goal and 31-point season were relatively good showings. He’s also not mentioned beyond this paragraph in this piece, due to his no-movement clause, which makes a demotion impossible. A buy-out isn’t, but that’s not going to happen either, according to Hughes himself.
The other veteran is Christian Dvorak. Similar to Anderson, he struggled significantly this past season. Unlike Anderson though, Dvorak has failed to meet expectations for several seasons now, arguably ever since he came over from the then-Arizona Coyotes to make up for the departures down the middle of Phillip Danault/Jesperi Kotkaniemi. He never really gelled as a second-line centre though, scoring just 11 goals and 33 points in 56 games in his first season with the Canadiens in 2021-22, which has turned out to be his best. In 2023-24, he scored just five goals and nine points in only 30 games, due to injury.
Dvorak also finds himself in a similar boat to Armia as an unrestricted free agent in 2025. While he’s probably unlikelier to earn the Canadiens something significant on the trade market (in part due to a higher $4.45 million cap hit), he remains a chip and probably someone they would like to deal as soon as this offseason. He holds some value as a centre, especially with a team-leading 54.9% success rate taking faceoffs since his acquisition. For some context, among Habs who regularly take faceoffs, Jake Evans is second in that time span with a respectable but still significantly lower 51.3%. Nick Suzuki is next at 49.8%.
So, while some may see Dvorak as the team’s fifth-best option at centre (Suzuki, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook, Evans) taking all factors into account, he does have his strengths. The idea is another team latches onto them during the offseason, but, if not, a deal closer to the next trade deadline will have to do. Considering the heightened expectations surrounding the team heading into the third full season of its rebuild, the Canadiens would probably see keeping a faceoff specialist on the roster as an opportunity for further growth.
Granted, it could just as easily be seen as taking an opportunity away from a prospect in the pipeline. However, assuming the soon-to-be 21-year-old Joshua Roy has already established himself as an NHLer and isn’t going anywhere, the organization is largely devoid of youngsters who are ready to graduate from the AHL, especially up front.
Demoting someone like Dvorak (or Anderson or Armia) would simply take developmental ice time away from them instead. No one wants that, and, while no one should really want the players mentioned immediately above to stick with the Habs, all three are conceivably staying put for the foreseeable future (at least in the NHL). Demoting Armia like he did, Hughes showed he isn’t afraid to pull the trigger in that respect, and there’s something to be said for that willingness. There’s a place and a time, though. It won’t be in 2024-25.
