Montreal Canadiens Free Agents: Who Stays and Who Goes?

The Montreal Canadiens are in for an offseason of change (hopefully). After a 32nd place finish in the 2021-22 season, they shouldn’t just run it back with the same lineup next season.

Of course, they do have to decide how good they want to be next season. Is it possible to go from last place to playoffs in one offseason? Possibly, but the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning are going nowhere next season so it will be extremely difficult.

With little chance of playoffs in 2023, should the Canadiens set their sights on the 2023 NHL Draft which features Connor Bedard? He is the best prospect to come along since Connor McDavid, so the Habs will have some company in trying to aim high in the draft lottery next season.

They will likely look at next season as a transition year. They aren’t going to promote a bunch of young players into the lineup full time, but instead will bring them along slowly. This is especially true on the blue line where players like Kaiden Guhle, Mattias Norlinder, Jordan Harris and Arber Xhekaj will all be playing their first full pro seasons in North America.

But you don’t want to face any of them into top four roles at the NHL level if they aren’t adequately prepared for it. But they do need to have room for big roles on the Laval Rocket.

So, the Canadiens should go into this offseason wanting to add a few veteran defenders who can play at the NHL level, but aren’t signed long term, and also open up some room for youngsters on the Rocket blue line.

With that in mind, which current Canadiens free agents will stay and which will walk away from the organization this offseason?

Restricted Free Agents That Need To Go

Teams usually hang on to almost all of their restricted free agents. All they need to do is give them a qualifying offer which is a one year deal that matches their 2021-22 season salary. You don’t see teams let these players go unless they are certain they don’t have an NHL future.

Kale Clague is probably the only RFA in the Habs organization that is likely to not get a qualifying offer. He was picked up off waivers last season, and though he showed tremendous speed and some skill with the puck, he had just five points in 25 games and was not good defensively.