GHT120

I-M-O this summer is not the time to be signing 9 UFA forwards ... unless (in the I win the LottoMax tonight fantasyland) Reinhart, Marchessault, Guentzel or Monahan want to accept a VERY Habs-friendly contract ... OR ... HuGo somehow manage to clear out some of the dead/dead-ish wood, bad contracts and are looking for "bridge veterans". They need to see how Roy develops at the NHL level ... whether/how soon Heineman and/or 2024-1st-rounder might be NHL ready ... how Mesar / Beck / Baby Xhekaj / Tuch do in the AHL ... whether a Dach/Newhook-ish "draft trade" pans out ... so next year HuGo et al can plan for 25-26 and beyond without having spots blocked by "try to make the playoffs in 24-25" signings ... I'm not expecting a real playoff push until 25-26.

Any extensions only count against the cap in the first season of that new contract ... Barron and Xhekaj are RFAs as of July 1st ... but unlike the CFL, the Habs cannot "use up" unspent 23/24 cap space to extend them now. As of July 1st (i.e., this summer), they could extend July 1, 2025 UFAs Dvorak*, Armia*, Evans**, Pezetta*, Savard** and Kovacevic** ... and ... July 1, 2025 RFAs RHP*, Slafkovsky***, Haris**, Struble**, Guhle***, Primeau*** * - unlikely ** - possibly *** - YES PLEASE

At most, he will get 2/72 of his AHL contract ... assuming it is the same as the AHL value of his ELC, that is $2,569.44 ... one game of his NHL ELC would have been $11,280.49 ... while that would have been some nice "pocket change", the REAL motivation for asking/hoping for a 23/24 ELC would obviously have been to burn a year and get to RFA, then eventually UFA if all goes well, a year sooner.

I believe the cap year is July 1st - June 30th ... not that it really matters ... Habs have over $5M of cap space (per CapFriendly) ... unless HuGo have REALLY big plans at the draft.

Well ... come July 1st

Unless the Habs take a lot of penalties, this is likely one of Savard's lower TOI games of this season ... and Harris/Kovacevic get quite a bit more than their usual 16-17 minutes per game ... but worth it to protect/insulate Hutson.

Read somewhere that if he signs a 23/24 ELC he is ineligible for Laval ... if he signs a 24/25 ELC he can sign a PTO with Laval and join them.

but is the first year of the ELC 23/24 or 24/25?

AND ... doing it as a 17 yr-old.

Here’s the projected lineup against the Wings: Forwards 22 Caufield - 14 Suzuki - 20 Slafkovsky 11 Gallagher - 15 Newhook - 40 Armia 49 Harvey-Pinard - 71 Evans - 17 Anderson 55 Pezzetta - 28 Dvorak - 56 Ylönen Defensemen 8 Matheson - 52 Barron 54 Harris - 26 Kovacevic 48 Hutson - 58 Savard Goalies 35 Montembeault 30 Primeau

Some unknown rookie supposedly playing tonight. More details when available.

Of course if he regresses to his norm he tanks his trade value.

"Talk" is that the outstanding issue is whether he signs for 23/24 and burns a year or signs a 24/25 ELC.

No doubt they have value ... but where they fit beyond next season will, I-M-O, have more bearing on what (if anything) happens to them this summer, or at the 24/25 deadline.

Hopefully HuGo's moves will be with 25/26 and 26/27 in mind, not just 24/25.

I tend to agree with @Commandant on this ... Armia has played well enough since the New Year to have value to some other teams, especially if "July 1st" doesn't address their needs that he fills ... not likely to require retention or garner much return.

I expect HuGo to be making moves based on where they want the team to be in 25/26 or 26/27 ... not 24/25.

Is it worth risking that he regresses to his norm and becomes difficult to trade, or should they strike while the iron is hot even if the return is "modest".

Always a good point to consider ... better to hope than build expectations.

Three of the current roster (Pearson, White, Ylonen) likely not back next season ... Anderson and Gallagher wouldn't be if I had a magic wand ... Armia is I-M-O unlikely to be extended (despite his post New Years play) and hopefully tradeable at the 25/25 deadline ... Evans has one more season but likely will be too expensive to renew as a 4C, and not I-M-O a 3C on the playoff/Cup contender the Habs are rebuilding towards ... so the question is likely whether Tuch's skill, size and aggressiveness gives him a better bottom-6 NHL future than RHP, Pezzetta and any Rockets ... my hope is that in 2-3 years Tuch and Whekaj could be 2/3 of the 4th line.

Yup ... and just because he is evil doesn't mean he isn't sometimes right.

WHY in the world would the Habs want to "ice their best lineup"? Wins only have the potential to worsen their draft position. Hutson is getting at least one game because that burns a year of his ELC ... THAT and getting some $$$ in his pocket immediately is why he signed now ... there was always the "possibility" of his waiting and ultimately deciding to play another NCAA season. Struble is with the Habs because they only have 7 healthy defencemen and one of them could be injured/get sick before the game roster is submitted. @dlbalr made it clear that Baby Xhekaj is playing because Stephens can't, not to "give him a game". So, not the management screw-up you seem to so often hope for.

I don't expect 2 games by Lane will have any impact on Cole's draft positioning ... I also don't expect Lane to get anything more than a "dipping a toe in the shallow end" in terms of TOI these two games.

Or give him a shot in goal