Montreal Canadiens: More proof it’s likely the end of Charles Hudon

Charles Hudo and his future with the Montreal Canadiens has been up in the air, but the rejection of his qualifying may be the nail in the coffin.

The 2018-19 season was a turning point for several players on the Montreal Canadiens, including Charles Hudon. After making the team out of camp for the first time last year, many were hoping Hudon could add more consistency to his game considering the major theme of his play. That being a tremendous degree of bad luck.

Hudon and Artturi Lehkonen are in the same stratosphere in the sense that they generate a lot of shots and scoring chances but convert on a few of them. Lehkonen’s luck turned a bit after getting the promotion up to Max Domi‘s wing along with Andrew Shaw while Hudon saw himself get surpassed by other wingers on the team.

After the first few opening months of the season, the only time Hudon could get in the lineup was if there was via Paul Byron‘s suspension or an injury.

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Hudon finished the season with 3 goals and 2 assists in 32 games a cliff dive from his 10 goals and 10 assists the year before that. Ice time and usage are clearly the major culprits. The 24-year-old saw him fall from a third-line option to a fourth-line fill-in.

And coincidently, the stats that made him a point of interest plummeted with a -7.51 RelCF/60 (shot generation – approximately 7 fewer shots were directed towards the opposition’s net when Hudon was on the ice vs. off) and a 10.7 RelCA/60 (shot suppression – nearly 10 more shots were directed towards the Habs end when Hudon was on the ice vs. off).

The shot suppression stat is the real nail biter here, especially with a coach like Claude Julien who values defence. That said, Hudon does play with an energy that is reminiscent of a vintage fourth-line player, finding space for him in the lineup was going to be the issue making a trade almost a must for the Montreal Canadiens.

Well, apparently that wasn’t the case. According to Richard Labbè of Lapresse, the Habs sent a qualifying offer Hudon’s way. The spice of the conversation, however, is that the 2012 fifth-round pick rejected it saying:

"When I left the locker room at the end of the season, I did not know they were going to offer me that, I said no (translated)."

The article states that one of the key issues with the offer is that it is a two-way contract meaning if Hudon is sent down to play with the Laval Rocket, and let’s be honest that’s a very likely scenario, he wouldn’t make the same that he would if in the NHL.

So how do qualifying offers work anyway?

The rules for qualifying offers haven’t changed from last year in that a player with a $600,000 cap-hit must have an offer with a 110% increase of that number. If it’s between $600,000 and $1 million, the multiplier is 105% and 100% if the salary is greater than $1 million.

The two-way vs. one-way portion of the argument is odd considering Hudon should know what he didn’t and didn’t do. If a player has played 180 NHL games in the previous three seasons, 60 games in the previous season, or if they did not clear waivers, the qualifying offer must be a one-way deal.

Hudon has 110 NHL games under his belt and only played 32 last season. If you factor in that he made $650,000, his qualifying offer was likely around $715,000 on a two-way contract.

Perhaps Hudon was more upset with the AAV which is understandable yet the reality. Being upset over the fact that it’s a two-way contract is plain wrong given the rules of handing qualifying offers to restricted free agents.

It looked as if the Montreal Canadiens were going to try to keep hold of the asset and see what he could do, maybe even give him an opportunity next season if something came up. With this out in the air, Hudon’s days with the Habs are likely over.

Teams will be looking for cheap depth given the issue with a stunted salary cap increase, and the perceived potential of Hudon’s scoring will draw interest. With the draft coming this weekend, it could be the perfect opportunity for Marc Bergevin to pull the trigger on the trade. Things could be rectified though between now and the June 25th deadline, but the optimism from that front looks like a lost cause at the moment.