August 15th is quietly a day of some importance on the NHL calendar as it’s the day that NHL rights expire for some college prospects. The Habs have someone in that situation as Brett Stapley was not signed and thus becomes an unrestricted free agent.
The rescheduled 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship will run from August 9th through the 20th. Although several of Montreal’s top prospects won’t be attending, they will still have five players representing the organization in this event. As is tradition, we’ll keep track of their progress here.
After the World Juniors were postponed back in December, the make-up tournament is set to get underway next week and will feature several Montreal prospects although not necessarily the ones at the original version of the tournament.
The Habs have brought in plenty of defencemen in recent years to their system. The left side is the deeper of the two as Montreal has depth at that spot among their NHL options while several of their better prospects also play that side.
Lane Hutson’s smaller stature has led to many questions about what he can or can’t do in the pros. Even if he isn’t able to play a typical defensive game in the NHL, there should be a role for him with the Habs down the road that would allow him to impact the game in a significant way.
While there are some question marks surrounding Montreal’s goaltending situation, things are much stabler across the rest of the organization. As always, we begin our look at the team’s depth with their netminders.
Laval continues to be quite active on the free agent front as they announced the signings of goalie Kevin Poulin, defenceman Alex Green, and winger Emile Poirier to one-year contracts.
On Sunday, Laval brought back a key veteran and signed a pair of goalies as Gabriel Bourque, Joe Vrbetic, and Philippe Desrosiers all signed AHL contracts for next season.
A day after inking Juraj Slafkovsky to his entry-level deal, it was Filip Mesar’s turn to sign as the Canadiens announced on Thursday that the winger has signed his three-year contract.
With Wednesday representing the first day of the new league year, players picked in last week’s draft are now eligible to sign contracts. The Canadiens wasted little time getting their top selection signed, announcing they’ve inked Juraj Slafkovsky to a three-year, entry-level deal.