The Montreal Canadiens might have made a qualifying offer to Kirby Dach, but that doesn't mean he'll definitely be a Hab next season.
On the eve of the draft, when Montreal Canadiens President of Hockey Operations Jeff Gorton spoke to the press, he was asked whether the team’s pending RFAs would all be tendered a qualifying offer, and he replied that they would, adding that the media couldn’t hold him to that in the future. Turns out Gorton was almost right; three of the four pending RFAs got a qualifying offer. Kirby Dach, Zach Bolduc and Arber Xhekaj were made a qualifying offer, but Joe Veleno was not.
It’s a shame for the Montreal native, who was a great fit for the role of 13th forward and changed his game to fit the Canadiens’ needs rather than chasing points. According to Sportsnet’s Eric Engels, Veleno wanted to stay, and the fact that he was not offered a contract indicates there are many potential forwards for the team next season, with possibly more to come.
Engels may be on to something here, and for me, the fact that Dach got a qualifying offer makes me believe the Canadiens may feel he could be used in a trade to get a top-six forward. Make no mistake, he won’t be the main piece; no team would go for that kind of offer. When Montreal acquired him, he was a former third-overall pick and projected as a top-six center in their evaluation. Fast forward four years, and he’s an injury-prone player who struggles with consistency and doesn’t play as a guy of his size could. He finished the playoffs on the wing of the fourth line.
He doesn’t hold that much value as a trade chip, but he is a roster player. In a deal with a team that doesn’t want to send the message that it is rebuilding, but rather retooling, it’s important to have actual NHLers in the return, and Dach could be that. A complementary piece that helps Kent Hughes close a deal. There may yet be some executives out there who still believe Dach is worth rolling the dice on, in case those injuries were just bad luck and he could turn over a new leaf and live up to his once-believed potential.
On that basis, it’s understandable that the Canadiens chose not to cut ties with a potential asset. The situation was different for Veleno, who signed a low-salary deal last year and doesn’t have the kind of offensive output teams really value. A player like him is easy to sign in free agency, and despite once being given the “exceptional player” status in junior, he just hasn’t lived up to that tag as an NHLer; he's never gotten more than 28 points in a season.
Should Hughes fail to get what he’s looking for either on the trade market or in free agency, the door remains open for Veleno to be back on a low-cost deal if he’s still a free agent if and when Hughes throws in the towel. If it does come to that, though, it will mean the offseason didn’t go the way the Habs’ brass hoped, and chances are both the fans and the players will be disappointed.
After making the Eastern Conference Final, the Sainte-Flanelle players have realized they are a good group and can compete in the postseason, but they still have some needs to address. Players who left money on the table when negotiating their deals with Hughes, such as Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Lane Hutson, did so so the GM would have the means to improve the team. They are certainly expecting him to do that now that they’re no longer a rebuilding team, but a team that must fill some needs to become a contender.
If Hughes’ offseason is a success, Veleno won’t be the only one who’s no longer a Hab when training camp opens. Last season, Cayden Primeau (who is now rumored to be heading to the KHL) got a qualifying offer but was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes hours later; in an ideal world, that’s what could happen with Dach.
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