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Not Habin’ It: Habs players in need of new contracts

By Joshua Delorme |
MONTREAL, QC - APRIL 02: Look on Montreal Canadiens left wing Artturi Lehkonen (62) at warm-up before the Tampa Bay Lightning versus the Montreal Canadiens game on April 02, 2019, at Bell Centre in Montreal, QC (Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - APRIL 02: Look on Montreal Canadiens left wing Artturi Lehkonen (62) at warm-up before the Tampa Bay Lightning versus the Montreal Canadiens game on April 02, 2019, at Bell Centre in Montreal, QC (Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

In episode three of the Not Habin’ It Podcast, I take a look at which players on the Montreal Canadiens’ roster are in need of new contracts this offseason.

Exciting news over the weekend as the Not Habin’ It Podcast is now available on Apple Podcasts. You can find it and subscribe to it here. Please go out and give us a rating and review! The podcast is also available on Stitcher if you are not using an Apple product. If you prefer listening to the podcast in your web browser, check out the show page here! Lots and lots of Montreal Canadiens content!

Multiple reports have suggested that the salary cap in the NHL will be going up from 79.5 million to approximately 83 million, and according to CapFriendly that would leave the Montreal Canadiens with approximately 14.5 million in cap space for next season. Because of this, I wanted to take a look at the upcoming unrestricted and restricted free agents currently on the Canadiens’ roster.

Upcoming Unrestricted Free Agents

The Canadiens currently have Jordie Benn and Antti Niemi as unrestricted free agents as of July 1, and Marc Bergevin told us at his end-of-season press conference that Niemi had already been told they would not be offering him a new contract this offseason. I spoke of Jordie Benn’s future contract on the podcast saying that the left-handed defenceman had a very solid season for Jordie Benn standards and is going to be in line for a pay raise from his current 1.1 million AAV.

I believe that Jordie Benn will have contract offers with AAVs between 2.5-3 million, and I argued on the podcast that the Montreal Canadiens should not be the team to give him that contract. My argument is that the Canadiens would be better off re-signing Brett Kulak and slotting him on the third pair. The Habs have a hole at top-4 left-handed defence, and Marc Bergevin needs to address that this summer. Addressing that need would allow for Kulak to slot perfectly into the third defence pairing.

More from A Winning Habit

Upcoming Restricted Free Agents

The Canadiens have five restricted free agents this summer that spent time on the big club during the season. I spoke about all of them during the podcast, and here is a brief overview of what I had to say:

  • Charles Hudon: 1-year deal if he wants to come back to Montreal as a prove-it contract. Knowing that his spot on the depth chart had fallen, he would have to prove he can bring his game to another level. If not, goodbye. Side note, check out Ken’s piece on bringing back Charles Hudon!
  • Brett Kulak: Bring him back instead of Jordie Benn, but slot him properly onto the third pair with Noah Juulsen.
  • Mike Reilly: If he wants to come back then fine, if not, it’s not a big loss.
  • Artturi Lehkonen: Would look to trade him in a package for help on defence.
  • Joel Armia: See Artturi Lehkonen. Realistically, if Marc Bergevin is able to do his job properly and bring in a top-6 forward, I don’t see a way for both Armia and Lehkonen to have spots on the roster. At some point, you simply run out of room. If you can get a better return with Armia in a package, then you trade Armia, if you get a better return with Lehkonen in the package then you trade Lehkonen.

I also spoke a little about the Habs re-signing Nate Thompson to a one-year contract. With an AAV of 1 million dollars, this is the definition of a low-risk signing. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, not a big deal. If there was one thing we saw after the team traded for Thomspon was the coaching staff’s trust in him and their reliance on him to win faceoffs. No surprise that they wanted to bring him back.

The team also brought Jordan Weal back on a two-year deal with an AAV of 1.4 million. If you’ve read my pieces or listened to the podcast before you know what energy, passion, and emotion I talk about the team. Well, the passion and emotion came back when I talked about Jordan Weal. I’m not against the signing, I’m against his use by the coaching staff. I will say this: I’m done with seeing Weal play more minutes than Jesperi Kotkaniemi! Listen to the podcast to know what else I have to say about this (it’s really, really good stuff).

Lastly, I spoke briefly about the Otto Leskinen signing and looked at what my expectations were for the young defenceman. Hint: help and depth for Laval. I also briefly touched on Michel Therrien being hired as an assistant coach in Philadelphia on Alain Vigneault’s staff. Hopefully, the Flyers don’t have any young prospects they hope to develop!

Next. Habs at the Memorial Cup. dark

I’m excited to bring you a new episode this Friday with a special guest supposed to join me! As always, if you have any ideas or suggestions for topics or future shows, please do not hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter. Or, if you prefer, you can leave me a comment here! I’d love to hear your suggestions or what you think of the show!

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