It was D-Day today for NHL general managers, they had to decide which pending restricted free agents (RFA) they wanted to keep by issuing them a qualifying offer (QO) and those they wished to cut ties with by simply not issuing a QO. It was a busy day around the NHL and the Montreal Canadiens were no exception. Let’s look at GM Kent Hughes’ day and see what his actions could potentially hint at.
Making Some Room on the Blue Line
It’s been said time and time again, the Canadiens have too many defencemen. So much in fact, they are getting in each other’s way as we speak. The situation isn’t lost on Hughes who decided to do something about it by trading away one of his defencemen.
Right-shot defencemen come at a premium in the NHL as they are not as common as left-shot ones. It’s therefore not that much of a surprise that it was Jonathan Kovacevic who was given his marching orders. The 26-year-old 6-foot-5, 223-pound blueliner joined the Canadiens’ organization at the start of the 2022-23 season. Kovacevic had just signed a new contract with the Winnipeg Jets, and they put him on waivers to send him down to the American Hockey League (AHL), but Montreal pounced and took him.
Over his two seasons with the Canadiens, he played 139 games picking up nine goals and 19 assists for 28 points while keeping a plus-14 rating and being assessed 81 penalty minutes. Still, it was time to part ways and Hughes sent him to the New Jersey Devils for a fourth-round pick in the 2026 Draft.
This is a good move by the GM turning a waiver pick-up into an asset. Furthermore, he is opening a spot on the blue line for one of his two right-shot defencemen, David Reinbacher and Logan Mailloux. Training camp should be interesting once again.
Qualifying Offers Extended
It was hardly surprising to read a QO was given to Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron. The first brings a mix of skills no other player brings to the Canadiens. He’s gritty, hard-hitting, has a booming shot and can actually play hockey and fight, which is no small feat.
Related: Canadiens GM Kent Hughes Remains Firm on Keeping Arber Xhekaj
Whenever Xhekaj is in the lineup, his teammates feel better and bigger. No one in their right mind would take liberties on the Canadiens’ goaltender with him on the ice, he’s about as far from Jeff Petry as you can be.
While Barron has struggled to establish himself in Montreal since arriving in the Artturi Lehkonen trade, there was no way Hughes was about to give up on him, he paid too steep a price to raise the white flag.
This season, the Canadiens won’t be able to send him down to the Laval Rocket without putting him on waivers. The fact Hughes has traded Kovacevic will give the 22-year-old defender a better opportunity to show he can perform at a high level.
The End of the Road
We learned at the draft that Jesse Ylonen wouldn’t be given a QO, but he wasn’t the only one the Canadiens decided to cut ties with. Defenceman Mattias Norlinder wasn’t extended an offer either and while it didn’t come as a surprise, there was a time when he was quite high up in the Canadiens’ defencemen pool. The 64th overall pick of the 2019 Draft was never really able to take the next step in his development.
Meanwhile, Lias Andersson, who was a New York Rangers’ seventh overall pick at the 2017 Draft when Jeff Gorton was still their GM, is now free as a bird as well. After an inconclusive stay in New York, he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings where he failed to impress as well. Rob Blake let him walk and the Canadiens offered him a chance at redemption with a one-year pact, but needless to say, it didn’t work out. No QO either for Filip Cederqvist who was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres in a minor league deal.
What does this all mean for the Canadiens? Well, now they’ve got nine contract spots since they have 41 and the limit allows each team to have 50. Will that mean new entry-level deals for a few prospects or will Hughes swing for the fences in free agency? My guess would be somewhere in between those two.
While the Canadiens are not ready to be serious contenders, they do have some cap space this season which they could use in a short-term deal with a player who could help them improve their offensive production. A one-year deal that includes a lot of money but won’t get in the way when Montreal needs to sign new contracts with players likely to be part of their core for years to come. We’ll see in the coming days what Hughes has in store for us.
