The Montreal Canadiens are beginning their offseason grunt work, and have already signed a core piece when they locked up Cole Caufield to an eight-year contract extension. They have also inked Michael Pezzetta to a two-year deal.
While they have been negotiating with a few NHL players, the organization has not forgotten about their American Hockey League affiliate. The Laval Rocket will be looking to build a deeper team next season and got their offseason work started already as well.
The Rocket announced they have signed defenseman Olivier Galipeau to a contract extension. The 26 year old has been in the Canadiens organization for the past two seasons, and he will continue with the team next season as well. He signed a one year AHL contract to stick with the Rocket in 2023-24.
Galipeau, a native of Montreal, was an excellent defender in Junior, and actually won the QMJHL Defenseman of the Year Award in 2018. He was traded that season from the Chicoutimi Sagueneens to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan and helped them win a Memorial Cup.
Le Rocket s’entend sur les modalités d’un contrat d’une saison à un volet avec Olivier Galipeau.
— Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) June 9, 2023
Détails: https://t.co/UCWuFyVWbc
Rocket agree to terms on a one-year, one-way AHL contract with Olivier Galipeau.
More: https://t.co/y3e9tHgkSr#GoRocket pic.twitter.com/8NA51ZTf7n
Combined between those two teams that season, Galipeau scored 25 goals and 74 points in 67 regular season games. He added 20 points in 20 playoff games and was a key contributor on that QMJHL championship winning team. He also won a QMJHL title in 2014 with the Val D’Or Foreurs, playing all 24 playoff games as a 16 year old defenseman.
The offensive minded defenseman was an ECHL All-Star last season as he started the year scoring 15 points in 19 games with the Trois-Rivieres Lions. As the year went along and injuries piled up, he found himself playing regularly for the Rocket in the AHL and he scored nine points in 45 games.
Since it is an AHL-only contract, it does not count as one of the team’s 50 allowable contracts in the organization. This should keep Galipeau in the AHL for the entire 2023-24 season.
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