Kent Hughes was busy this offseason, and while his biggest acquisition came on the trade market, there were a couple of interesting free agent signings. One came on July 1, while the second took a little bit more time. Half of July was already gone when the Montreal Canadiens put pen to paper with Joe Veleno.

As I’ve written earlier, Veleno isn’t the answer as the Canadiens’ second-line center. However, he’s still a center with a fair amount of offensive talent, and he could be the solution to the Patrik Laine dilemma.

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While the Finnish sniper's shortcomings were painfully obvious at even strength, he’s still a talented player who can score his fair share of goals. But that’s harder to do when skating in the bottom six, unless you are still playing with linemates who have a lot of offensive talent.

Veleno’s arrival gives Martin St-Louis an option to put Laine down on the third line, but still in a position to score goals. I had Alex Newhook down on the fourth line in my first article about this upcoming season’s lines because I didn’t want to split Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson.

What Veleno’s arrival does is allow Jake Evans to be put with Anderson and Gallagher in a reliable and energetic line for the bottom six. One Martin St-Louis won’t be worried about starting it deep in its zone, one that will always give him 100% effort on both sides of the puck.

Signing this new center also means that perhaps newly acquired Zach Bolduc, whom the Canadiens' brass see as having top-six potential, might get an audition on their second line alongside Kirby Dach and Ivan Demidov.

Bolduc confirmed the Tricolore has asked him to work on his faceoffs this Summer, which he has been doing by enlisting Marc Bureau’s help. The new number 76 is a left-shot winger, which means he could take the faceoffs on Dach’s weak side as well.

When the Canadiens acquired Bolduc, Simon Gagne vouched for his offensive talent and potential. Is he ready to get top-six minutes in Montreal? There’s only one way to find out. Giving Veleno a third-line center role would also push Samuel Blais out of the lineup, but that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

After all, Blais is 29 years old and spent all of last season in the AHL. Perhaps, the best role for him in Montreal is that of the 13th forward. Another consequence of putting Veleno there on the third line would be to give Oliver Kapanen and Owen Beck another year to develop in the AHL with the Laval Rocket.

Kapanen and Beck are both 21. If the coaching staff at camp deems it appropriate, another year in the AHL wouldn’t hurt. No one has ever spent too much time in the minor league, and that would be much more logical than keeping either of them up with the big club to sit as the 13th forward.

The arrival of Bolduc, Veleno, and Blais is giving Martin St-Louis several options. Montreal set off to improve its depth up front this offseason, and that’s precisely what it did. Granted, they weren’t able to secure a second-line center, so far at least, but they still made some significant moves.

Hughes said last season that he didn’t want to prevent his team’s organic growth by going all in with rookies, that doing so could mean taking a step back rather than a step forward. As things stand, the Canadiens will already have one rookie in their lineup in Demidov. Last season, they had two in Lane Hutson and Emil Heineman, but they weren’t playing on the same line or in the same roles.

One was a standout blueliner while the second was a depth forward with an intense forechecking game. Allowing Kapanen to play in the top six, if he’s ready, could still be a bit of a gamble given the fact you’d have two rookies on the ice at the same time. Of course, both already have experience in professional hockey; Demidov played in the KHL last season, while Kapanen was in the SHL.

It’s essential to recognize that it’s still early in the offseason and that everything could change depending on how the players appear when they report to training camp. Unlike last season, it’s not all that easy to guess what the lineup will be like. There are many new players, and Dach, who will be starting a second season after a significant injury, will be on a much shorter leash. He was told by management that his form wasn’t where it should have been when he showed up to camp last season, and he’ll have to be better this time around.

Photo credit: Talia Sprague-Imagn Images

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