The Montreal Canadiens have announced that restricted free agents (RFAs) Brett Berard, Zachary Bolduc, Kirby Dach, Jared Davidson, Sean Farrell, Hunter McKown, Maksymilian Szuber, and Arber Xhekaj have all been tendered qualifying offers.

However, one Canadiens pending RFA forward did not receive a qualifying offer: Joe Veleno. With this, he will hit the market as an unrestricted free agent (UFA) on July 1.

Veleno signed a one-year, $900,000 contract with the Canadiens ahead of the 2025-26 season. The 2018 first-round pick ended up getting in a good amount of action this season with the Canadiens, as he appeared in 61 regular-season games. During them, he recorded two goals, five points, and 166 hits. He also played in nine games during the Canadiens' playoff run, where he recorded one assist. 

With Veleno getting into a lot of action as a bottom-six forward for the Canadiens, it seemed possible that they would tender him a qualifying offer. This is especially so when noting that his cap hit was so low. However, the Canadiens have decided to go in a different direction on that front. 

Out of the players who received qualifying offers, one could argue that Dach is the most surprising. The big forward has a $4 million qualifying offer, which is a bit expensive for his current bottom-six role. However, the Canadiens were still not willing to let him have the potential to walk for nothing and become a UFA. 

Dach was limited to only 37 games this past season with the Habs, where he had eight goals, 15 points, and 53 hits. He has not played more than 58 games in each of his first four seasons with the Canadiens.