Montreal Canadiens: Danick Martel Signs Minor League Contract

The Montreal Canadiens are tremendously busy gearing up for the NHL Draft and free agency if right on the heels of that. While they are obviously focused on the adding the next wave of NHL talent to the pipelines, they took care of a little piece of minor league business today as well.

The Canadiens, well the Laval Rocket really, announced that Danick Martel has signed a one-year contract to stay with the organization through next season.

Martel, a native of Drummondville, Quebec played last season with the Rocket and scored 17 goals and 33 points in 70 games. He was third on the team in goals and fifth in points, helping them qualify for the postseason, where he brought his game to another level.

The Rocket made a bit of surprising run to the Conference Final in the AHL postseason. Martel was a big reason why as he scored nine goals and 15 points in the Rocket’s 15 playoff games. He lead the team in both categories and was a big reason why they were able to eliminate the Syracuse Crunch and Rochester Americans in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Martel, a 27 year old winger, is a veteran of 357 AHL games but only 13 NHL contests. He has become a veteran leader with the Rocket and they will lean on him once again next season.

The contract is a one-way AHL contract so it does not count against the Canadiens limit of 50 contracts in the organization. It also means he is not eligible to be called up to the Canadiens roster, but could sign an NHL contract with any team in the league at any time since he is technically still an NHL free agent.

The Rocket had a large group of players from Quebec on their roster this season but many were on the last year of their contracts. It will be interesting to see how many more local players are retained in the coming days.

Want your voice heard? Join the A Winning Habit team!

Write for us!