Canadiens Make Qualifying Offers to Five Players, Cut Three

The Montreal Canadiens have qualified five restricted free agents but have chosen to not offer contracts to three others.

The Montreal Canadiens continue to take care of business early in the offseason. They have already traded three picks for goaltender Jake Allen and left defenceman Joel Edmundson to add some depth to the lineup.

Yesterday, they made their qualifying offers to restricted free agents and there weren’t really any surprises.

The Habs had eight players that were eligible to be qualified and three players look like they will be walking away from the organization.

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When a restricted free agent sees his contract expire, the team has to extend him a qualifying offer to retain his services. The offer has to at least match what the player made last season. You can’t offer a player less than his salary in the season directly before he became a restricted free agent. If this offer is made, the organization keeps control of the player, but if an offer isn’t made they become an unrestricted free agent.

The Canadiens had eight RFAs this season. Max Domi, Charles Hudon, Victor Mete, Noah Juulsen and Xavier Ouellet all received qualifying offers from the Habs. Andrew Sturtz, Aaron Luchuk and Antoine Waked did not.

Domi will likely receive a nice raise after earning $3.15 million each of the past two seasons. He scored 72 points in 2018-19 but dropped to 17 goals and 44 points in 71 games. If the player and team can’t come to an agreement, Domi is eligible for arbitration this offseason.

Hudon didn’t have a terrific season and might even just accept his qualifying offer. Since he made less than a million dollars last year, the team actually has to offer him a 5% raise on this offer. After scoring just one goal and two points in 15 NHL games, it might be wise for Hudon to accept his one-year, $840,000 offer.

Mete will surely get a decent raise on his contract. His entry-level deal has expired, and he has proven to be a capable third pairing defenceman with the potential for more in the future. Like Hudon, Mete’s salary puts him in the range where he gets a 5% raise on his qualifying offer. His salary was $760,000 last season so his qualifying offer is worth just under $800,000. There is no way he accepts that, but he is not yet eligible for arbitration, so I can see him eventuallyagreeing to a short two-year deal with a cap hit around $1.5 million.

Ouellet was on a one-year $700,000 contract last season. His qualifying offer is worth $735,000. He played most of the season in the minors, so he might not have much choice but to just accept it and hope for a better season before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in a year.

Juulsen earned $832,000 last season so his offer is for $873,600 for next season. He only played 13 games last season and a total of 24 the year previous, so it makes sense for him to accept the offer as well. He does require waivers this season so he might get a shot to stick at the NHL level and prove he is worth more than that after next season.

Sturtz was acquired in the Mike Reilly trade early in the season. He was basically a contract thrown in to even things out in the deal. He played most of the season in the ECHL.

Luchuk was brought in when Matthew Peca was sent to the Ottawa Senators at the trade deadline. Again, teams often like to move out a contract when they acquire one so there is no surprise that Luchuk was never in the Habs long term plans.

Waked was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2017 after a solid overaged season in the QMJHL. He’s big, but he doesn’t bring much offence to the AHL level, so not offering him a contract opens up a contract slot for next season.

Next. Tatar has earned a contract offer. dark

The Canadiens technically have until October 7th to make these official. They can’t rescind an offer that was already made but they could change their mind on a player that looks to be leaving, but I don’t see why they would do that in the next few days.

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