Montreal Canadiens Pending Free Agents: Who Stays, Who Leaves?

The Montreal Canadiens have a handful of pending free agents this offseason. Which ones will be back with the Habs and which ones are going to become free agents?

The Montreal Canadiens head into the second half of June with nine pending free agents. Luckily for them, none of them are due a huge contract and all but one of them are restricted free agents. This means it will be easy to bring most of them back if they wish to do so.

But will they want to bring everyone back? Let’s take a quick gander at each player whose contract is up and see if they have already played their final game in the Canadiens organization.

The only pending unrestricted free agent of the bunch is defenseman Jordie Benn. The hulking blue liner had a pretty solid season for the Habs, holding down the fort on the third defence pairing and easing the transition for a few youngsters along the way.

The 31 year old is coming off a three year deal with a $1.1 million cap hit. He is likely looking to make a bit more on his next deal and will want a multi-year agreement. Montreal already have Victor Mete and Brett Kulak on the left side of the blue line. They need to add one more left shot, but it has to be a more significant upgrade than Benn.

I’d say Benn has played his last game with the Montreal Canadiens.

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There are a pair of bottom six wingers in Joel Armia and Artturi Lehkonen who are locks to be re-signed. Lehkonen is an exceptional penalty killer and defensive winger who might have untapped offensive potential. As a restricted free agent, the Canadiens retain his rights and will eventually sign him to a bridge-type contract.

Armia is pretty much in the same boat as Lehkonen. Smart, two-way winger who can kill penalties and looks to have more offensive punch than his numbers would suggest. Armia just turned 26 so he is likely to get a one-year contract as a last chance to show if there’s more offence or if he is just a big, defensive fourth liner.

Either way, both Lehkonen and Armia will play for the Montreal Canadiens next season.

The third RFA forward who played in the NHL and needs a contract is Charles Hudon. He is far less established than even the 23 year old Lehkonen. It appeared Hudon had claimed a role with the Habs in the 2017-18 season when he scored 30 points in 72 games.

However, he struggled this season and was a frequent healthy scratch. He played just 32 games, scoring three goals and five points. He turns 25 this weekend and his miserable season brings his trade value to zero. He has shown enough promise in the past that the Habs should give him a qualifying offer and then re-sign him to a one year deal.

Another bad year and Hudon will be let go. A bounce back season and the Canadiens will have another valuable asset who can help out on the bottom six.

The only other RFA that played with the Canadiens last season is defenceman Mike Reilly. He showed off some skills with his great skating and puck moving ability. However, the more he played, the more obvious his defensive lapses became.

With Mete, Kulak and the aforementioned upgrade on left defence, Reilly does not have a role with the Habs going forward. Even in the AHL, the Laval Rocket already have Karl Alzner, Gustav Olofsson, Otto Leskinen, David Sklenicka and Xavier Ouellet on the left side. Reilly is redundant and not effective enough to be on the Habs going forward.

The Canadiens also have four RFA’s who played primarily in the AHL last season. It was already announced that Daniel Audette and Hunter Shinkaruk will not receive qualifying offers and will become unrestricted free agents this summer.

Another player who is pushing his luck with the Canadiens organization is former first round pick Michael McCarron. After four pro seasons, the 6’5″ forward has suited up for a total of 69 NHL games and scored two goals and eight points.

He had a solid start this season, but injuries held him to just 32 games. He scored 21 points, which put him on pace for about 50 points over a full season. This is not exceptional, but would have resulted in a career high.

As a RFA at the age of 24, McCarron should get one more chance to prove he can turn things around. The Canadiens continue to add depth at the NHL level, making it more difficult to ever see how McCarron could crack the NHL lineup. I don’t know if he will every play another game with the Montreal Canadiens, but he will get another season with the Laval Rocket.

The final free agent in the organization is defenseman Brett Lernout. The right shooting blue liner played 74 games with the Rocket last season, scoring nine points. He had an 18 game audition with the big club the year previous, but did not get a call-up last season.

The 23 year old is not likely to stick around in Laval for another year. He’s going to be behind Cale Fleury and Josh Brook on the right side of Laval’s blue line, and I’m guessing that Marc Bergevin will want another veteran playing with all the young D in Laval. Cutting Lernout loose will open up a spot for a right shot veteran defenceman who can mentor Fleury, Brook and Leskinen.