Montreal Canadiens: An eerie feeling about Noah Juulsen and Mike Reilly

Mike Reilly was one of the RFAs the Montreal Canadiens qualified and extended but with Noah Juulsen still in the fold, are more moves coming the Habs way?

The Montreal Canadiens didn’t seem to have a problem getting Brett Kulak, and Mike Reilly signed. Kulak proved he can be a valuable asset on the team’s blue line and will get three years in Montreal to show what he can do moving forward. On the other hand, there’s something about the Reilly signing that’s odd, odd enough that it could hint at a trade or peculiar decision come training camp.

The Habs obviously value having Reilly as part of the defence corps. He may not be the best defensively, but his skating and shot generation capabilities are an asset, especially for a team like Montreal who have a number of players that can quickly break the puck through the neutral zone to the offensive zone and into those dangerous scoring areas. But any way you break it down, Reilly is likely starting the season as the seventh defenceman.

Claude Julien seemed to like what Christian Folin brought to the table and ran with him for the rest of the season while Reilly continued to watch from the press box. The Montreal Canadiens could’ve done this to make sure all their options are reliable in the event that Folin takes a step back.

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The reason I can’t shake this eerie feeling that something else is coming is because of Noah Juulsen.

The 2015 first-round pick made the team out of camp last season and was playing decent before a couple of pucks to the face took him out of the lineup. The injury was bad enough to have some questioning his ability to play, but good news came that Juulsen will be ready for training camp.

Wouldn’t that have Juulsen as the prime candidate to play next to Kulak on the bottom pair? Juulsen is physical and has good reads and positioning. The 20-year-old may not be as offensively inclined as Reilly, but there are signs of skill, and Claude Julien would be more comfortable with the more reliable player.

Juulsen has clear top-four potential and perhaps takes Jeff Petry‘s spot on the second pair if he ends up leaving the team at the end of the 2020-21 season. I don’t see what he would have to prove in the AHL if he’s sent down and we’ve seen how steady he is at the NHL level a such a young age.

If Kulak and Juulsen end up being the team’s bottom pair, then the Reilly extension makes even less sense. It’s not like Folin who is making a little north of league minimum. $1.5 million isn’t a lot (relatively speaking), but it isn’t enough to be buried and isn’t as easy to justify.

Maybe this is a deep desire in hoping Marc Bergevin makes another move, but this doesn’t add up, regardless of the belief that you can never have enough depth. If Bergevin is still active, perhaps Noah Juulsen is a part of the plan leaving a free spot for Reilly.

There’s also the possibility of Claude Julien trying to maintain the level of internal competition at training camp, but again, Juulsen should have a strong edge in that race already.

It’s really hard to tell at this point, but that’s going to be something to pay attention to once training camp and preseason begin in September.