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Montreal Canadiens ECHL Affililate Issue Eight Qualifying Offers

By Ken MacMillan

GATINEAU, CANADA - DECEMBER 1: Alex Breton #7 of the Gatineau Olympiques skates with the puck against the Saint John Sea Dogs on December 1, 2017 at Robert Guertin Arena in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Francois Laplante/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images)
GATINEAU, CANADA - DECEMBER 1: Alex Breton #7 of the Gatineau Olympiques skates with the puck against the Saint John Sea Dogs on December 1, 2017 at Robert Guertin Arena in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Francois Laplante/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images) /
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The Montreal Canadiens re-signed Mitchell Stephens to a one-year contract earlier today. He will join newcomers Lias Andersson, Phillip Maillet and Brady Keeper with the Laval Rocket next season amid a handful of minor league signings at the AHL level.

The team’s ECHL affiliate, the Trois-Rivieres Lions, have also been busy getting players locked up for next season. They identified a large number of players that will be on their roster next season when they issued eight qualifying offers to players earlier this week.

ECHL teams are allowed to protect eight players that were on their season-ending roster but only four of them are allowed to have played more than professional hockey games.

The eight players the Lions chose to hand qualifying offers to are forwards Cole Gallant, Nicolas Guay and Zack Kaiser as well as defensemen Alex Breton, Sam Dunn, Bradley Johnson, Shane Kuzmeski and Connor Welsh.

Gallant played just seven ECHL games last season after graduating from Western Michigan scored four points with the Lions and will return next season.

Guay, from Chateuguay, Quebec scored 12 goals and was tied for third on the team with 47 points last season.

Kaiser joined the Lions after finishing his college career at UMass-Lowell last season and he scored seven points in 11 ECHL games.

Breton was terrific for the Lions last season, scoring 25 points in 30 games from the blue line. He is one of the veterans who has played well over 260 pro games and may continue to look for an AHL contract.

Dunn is a physical presence at 6’2″ and 217 pounds and just finished his Canadian University career at Saint Mary’s University played just nine games in the ECHL last season and did not register a point.

Johnson was a regular on the Lions blue line last season playing 50 games and the 27 year old would be considered a veteran at the ECHL level. He scored eight points.

Kuzmeski arrived from the Indy Fuel midseason and scored eight points in 18 games for the Lions.

Welsh was also a regular on the Lions last season, playing 63 games and scored two goals and 20 points.

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