Montreal Canadiens qualify four of their nine restricted free agents
By Omar L
The deadline to give a qualifying offer to a restricted free agent and the Montreal Canadiens have handed them out to only four of them.
There’s more turnover within the Montreal Canadiens organization. By 5 PM ET restricted free agents needed to receive a qualifying offer to remain part of the fold. Those who don’t are allowed to move on and sign with another team.
We looked at how the qualifying offers were calculated in a previous post. As the deadline is behind us, the Habs NHL site revealed that only four of their nine restricted free agents had gotten the call to stay. They being: Phillip Danault, Jacob de La Rose, Michael McCarron, and Kerby Rychel.
Danault and de La Rose were obvious choices. The former is expected to sign a long-term extension with the Montreal Canadiens while the latter showed what he could be in the second half of the season. McCarron has been a prospect the Habs are continuing to work with as he hasn’t progressed the way they’d like. He was decent for the team at the end of the season and will be looking to have a strong training camp.
Rychel was obtained in the Tomas Plekanec trade known to be a star in the AHL. He continued his level of play in a short window with the Laval Rocket before getting called up. The 2013 first-round pick didn’t look out of place in the NHL. Although the wing looks to get congested, there’s a chance Rychel contests for a spot.
Daniel Carr, Logan Shaw, Jeremy Gregoire, Tom Parisi, and Zachary Fucale were the ones who didn’t receive an offer.
All except for Carr weren’t too shocking. Fucale was the top goaltender in his draft class but was unfortunately surpassed by other goaltenders in the system. Gregoire and Parisi spend their professional careers in the AHL with the St. Johns Ice Caps and Laval Rocket.
The Montreal Canadiens took a shot at Gregoire in the sixth round of the 2013 Draft. Since then, he’s played a total of 181 AHL games scoring 27 goals and 21 assists. Parisi was a free agent signing out of college. Although he had his best year, he found himself a healthy scratch in favour of some of the younger blueliners.
Again, Carr not being signed is a shock. He was always one of the AHL club’s better performers and brought the same level of play to the NHL. The 26-year-old along with Byron Froese and Nicolas Deslauriers made an effective fourth line for a stretch of the season. But the decision may speak to the lack of room on the wing.
Next: Habs 2018 NHL Draft Class
Now that these decisions have been made, it’ll be interesting to see how the contract situation between the four who did receive offers plays out.