The Montreal Canadiens were fairly busy leading up to the trade deadline on Monday, March 21st.
They traded Tyler Toffoli and Ben Chiarot well before the deadline passed, but also pulled off deals for Artturi Lehkonen and Brett Kulak on Monday before running out of time.
Now that the deadline has passed, trade rumours will surely quiet down, but it didn’t mean the Canadiens were done with transactions.
The team announced the signing of Jordan Harris last night. The third overall pick from the 2018 NHL Draft just finished his college career with Northeastern following an overtime loss to Western Michigan in the NCAA Tournament. This completed Harris’ fourth season of college hockey and thus, his NCAA career was over.
He could have waited until the summer and became a UFA and signed wherever he wanted. But, just a day after being eliminated from the college hockey tournament, Harris agreed to terms with the Canadiens on a two-year entry-level contract.
The Canadiens will have a similar decision to make with Brett Stapley who is scoring over a point per game for Denver and just wrapping up his fourth and final college campaign. He was a 7th round pick in 2018 but has shown steady improvement during his college career and is a strong two-way centre for one of the top college teams in the country.
Stapley could sign, but who else could be on the Habs radar? Any undrafted players could be signed by any NHL team and not many NHL teams need immediate help as much as the Canadiens right now.
Let’s take a look at a few interesting available players who could add some depth to the Canadiens prospect pool.