Montreal Canadiens Use Little Loophole To Add More Prospects To System

The Montreal Canadiens have been, and promise to continue to be, extremely busy at the NHL Draft. The team made 11 selections at the 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal, and have consistently been adding extra picks each year since 2017.

The Canadiens already hold 11 selections in the 2023 NHL Draft and are likely to be sellers at the trade deadline between now and then. Adding as many darts to throw at the dart board, so to speak, is a great strategy for something as unpredictable as the NHL Draft.

However, teams are not allowed to just hang on to as many prospects as they wish. NHL teams only hold those player’s rights for a finite amount of time. For players drafted out of the CHL, that is just two years. For players attending college, their rights are held until the year they graduate.

For European players it can be longer, but is typically four years, or the same amount of time players attend college.

Also, teams are only allowed to have 50 players under NHL contracts at any time. So, they can’t just sign every single prospect and wait to see how they turn out. Teams have to be decisive and pick and choose from their crop of prospects each year.

Although, the Canadiens have recently found a way to kind of expand that prospect pool. Instead of letting a couple of fringe prospects walk when their rights were being lost, the Habs have found a different way to keep them under the organizational umbrella.

Some of these prospects are being signed to AHL-only contracts, which don’t count under the limit of 50 NHL contracts. The most recent example of this is Brett Stapley.

Stapley was a 7th round pick of the Canadiens at the 2018 NHL Draft. He just finished his fourth season of college hockey with Denver, winning a national title, and was an NHL free agent on August 16th. Well, technically he still is, but he signed an AHL-only contract with the Laval Rocket for the upcoming season.

The two-way centre had a strong NCAA career, but he isn’t going to step right into the NHL this season. He had 43 points in 41 games for Denver and was a key penalty killer for the top team in college hockey. This came after a disappointing third season where he scored seven points in 13 games while battling injuries. He had an impressive 30 points in 35 games in his second season with Denver and 19 points in 32 games during his initial college season.

It is possible Stapley follows the same path as Jake Evans and becomes a depth NHLer in the near future. Fortunately for the Canadiens, they get to watch him grow for another year in the organization without having to commit to a longer term entry-level contract right away.

The Canadiens did the same thing with goaltender Joe Vrbetic. He had a solid season for the North Bay Battallion but it wasn’t without its ups and downs. Now 20, he is old enough for pro hockey, but hadn’t quite proven enough at the Junior level to earn a three year entry level deal.

So, he signed a one-year two-way contract with the Laval Rocket which will likely see him play in the ECHL. If he performs well, the Canadiens could look to sign him during the season to an extension.

Xavier Simoneau is in the same boat. He was drafted in 2021 so the Canadiens hold his rights for another year anyway. However, he is 21 and too old to return to Junior so he signed a one-year contract with the Rocket for the 2022-23 season.

That gives the Canadiens three additional prospects in the system who are going to play pro hockey but are not taking up a contract slot. Stapley, Simoneau and Vrbetic were all late round picks and aren’t the Canadiens very best prospects.

Instead of letting them walk and losing their rights for nothing, the Canadiens have found a way to have them play one year of pro hockey with the organization without actually signing them to an NHL contract.

It is a fairly brilliant move by Kent Hughes to further expand the team’s prospect system.

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