A Winning Habit » Carey Price

Montreal Candiens Drop RFAs: Nokelainen, Blunden and Others Not Qualified

Stephan Cooper — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 23:18:13 +0000

Today was the deadline for teams to submit qualifying offers to RFA players. This process gives an initial contract offering according to standardized rates to RFA players which they may accept or reject and then negotiate a new deal. Failling to qualify players results in their team losing exclusive rights over them and the players becoming unrestricted free agents on July 1st.

The following players in the Canadiens organizations were not qualified and their rights were released.

Mike Blunden and Petteri Nokelainan were disappointments as poor options for bottom sixth depth this last season. As replaceable parts its doubtful they will be missed. The rest are AHL/ECHL players that were part of a lack luster Hamilton team. They will be likely be replaced by new professional prospects from CHL/NCAA as well as new organization depth signings. The most notable AHL player dropped is Andrew Conboy who some were seeing as a potential future enforcer/tough guy for the big club.

This also frees 8 contract spots from the 50 contract limit to pursue new players, coincidentally the same number of new prospects already signed for next year (Gallagher, Holland, Bournival, Ellis, Beaulieu, Tinordi, Quailer and Pateryn).

All other RFA’s were qualified except for Carey Price, whose QO was made unnecessary by club-elected arbitration.

Top AHL/NHL tweener players Engqvist, Palushaj, Geoffrion, St. Denis and Nash were all qualified. Speculation is out there that Engqvist may return to Sweden but most sources agree that he would prefer to remain in North America and making the NHL is his primary goal.

Montreal currently stands at 41 contracts, leaving 9 spots open. Two UFA players are reasonably likely to be re-signed in Darche and Moen and one spot may be left open for Alex Galchenyuk if he proves NHL ready right away. So the Canadiens will have space to add about 6 new players to the organization in Montreal or Hamilton by free agency. This includes both NHL free agents and prospects signed from amateur or European professional leagues.

Don’t Panic: Habs File for Arbitration with Carey Price and its a Good Thing

Stephan Cooper — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 19:16:11 +0000

The Montreal Canadiens have filled for arbitration with Carey Price. Don’t let any panic or hyperventilation from the internet over this confuse you, it was the smart move and doesn’t mean they’re having difficulty with negotiations.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=398905

This is purely a defensive move to ward off the potential for other teams to send an offer sheet Price’s way, largely similar to the same move Nashville pulled last off-season with Shea Weber. A team can file for arbitration only once with a player which will lead to an arbitration hearing for a one year contract if the two sides cannot come to an agreement before hand. It also disallows any other team from submitting an offer sheet during that time.

Carey Price only has two more seasons as an RFA left so its expected he’ll be signing a multi-year deal to take him into UFA years this summer. Therefore it is unlikely Montreal will need arbitration at any future point with Price and they can use their arbitration this season to prevent any other team from interfering with their negotiations with the star netminder.

The Andrei Markov frenzy

Jared Book — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:13:06 +0000

Note: I would like to apologize for lack of activity. I was dealing with a brutal cold but posting should resume regularly.

Everyone needs to relax.

Around two weeks ago, Canadiens head coach Jacques Martin said that Andrei Markov would not play until the end of November. People were disappointed, and were upset that it was taking so long for the team’s biggest free agent signing to come back from his rehab and injury.

Fast forward to today. Yesterday, people were saying that Markov could return for tonight’s game against the Anaheim Ducks. Then, this afternoon Markov was absent from the team’s morning skate. That led to speculation that he had a setback, that he is being held out for tomorrow’s game to avoid a back-to-back situation or that it was simply a rest. The fact remains is that there was never precedent that he would return today. There probably wasn’t a setback, and there might not be if he doesn’t skate or play tomorrow either.

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