Montreal Canadiens GM spoke to the media after trading Joel Edmundson. He updated contract talks with Alex Newhook and showed support for David Reinbacher.
The Canadiens first move after the opening of free agency was a trade with the Washington Capitals. Joel Edmundson was sent to Washington in exchange for two 2024 draft picks. Montreal retains half of the defenseman's salary in the transaction.
Edmundson has one year remaining on his contract that carries an average annual value (AAV) of $3.5 million. The 30-year-old’s name was rumored to be on the move since last season but no transaction was close to happening at the time. Kent Hughes advised Edmundson that he would be dealt before the end of his contract.
At the conclusion of the season, the defenseman addressed his future with the organization. “It was a stressful time at the trade deadline and I was happy to stay here. I still have a year left in my contract and I love this organization, love the team, love what we're building towards and that's up to management what they want to do, but I do love playing here.”
In his three seasons in Montreal, Edmundson brought leadership to the defensive core. "Joel had a big presence in our room. He had a leadership role. As I told him, I hope that he left a piece of him in the room, that our young players learned from him that they will use in their career with us," Hughes said during a videoconference on Saturday.
Confidence in Young Defencemen
In the 61 games he played last season, Edmundson averaged 19:34 of ice time, and was on the first penalty kill unit. The Canadiens have a lot of depth on left defence to take on the veteran's allotment.
"On defence, we're young. We were young often last season. We believe that our young players gained a lot of experience last season mostly due to injuries, and they're ready for more work this season," Hughes stated.
It's hard to imagine that the coaching staff would ask for more out of Mike Matheson who averaged 24:27 of ice time in 2022-'23. Last season, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, and Arber Xhekaj were forced to spend time on the right side to gain the experience needed at their age.
On the right side, David Savard is the veteran that will be given the most responsibilities, averaging 22:23 of ice time last season. Justin Barron, Johnathan Kovacevic and Chris Wideman round out that side of the ice.
Remaining Priorities
From a free agent perspective, Hughes made minor additions by signing forward Philippe Maillet and defenceman Brady Keeper to one-year, two-way contracts.
It is in the second year of the rebuild, and the team wants to give as much opportunity to the young players. "We don't want to block our young players. If we go sign a 32-33 year old that can help us for 1-2 years, it will hurt the chances of a young player to progress and develop in our lineup that will be with us for several years," said the general manager.
Hughes still has several files to handle during the offseason. Preliminary talks have begun with Alex Newhook's agent for a contract extension. Newhook, acquired on Tuesday from the Colorado Avalanche, is a restricted free agent that received a qualifying offer on Friday.
During his videoconference, Hughes mentioned that from a signature perspective Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Jesse Ylonen's contracts are a priority in addition to Newhook. He added that at some point, the discussions with Samuel Montembeault would begin for an extension as the goalie is entering the final year of his deal.
The general manager kept the door open for more transactions before the start of the season. "It's a possibility. Probably more up front than on defence because we have a lot of forwards," he answered when asked about the possibility of completing more trades.
Reinbacher Will Play for a Long Time
When the Canadiens selected David Reinbacher with the fifth overall pick on Tuesday, a portion of the fan base was upset that the organization passed on forward Matvei Michkov.
Unfortunately, some of the unhappy fans sent the 18-year old disgraceful messages on social media. The organization was not caught off guard by the reaction.
"We are conscious that our fans are passionate, and were passionate about the draft because we chose early. They were also passionate last year regarding Shane Wright. I can't say that we are surprised. We know that there was a lot of discussion on social media about Michkov. The only thing we ask to our fans is to be patient," said Hughes.
Reinbacher is one of the 38 attendees at development camp that began on Saturday. The general manager took the opportunity to speak to the defenseman.
"The best of worlds and then a little bit of a disappointment when he's getting some messaging on social media that are far from positive which to us is a little bit unfortunate. We understand fans can direct frustration towards management and scouting and we're grown men. You got a young man who had nothing to do with our decision and who's living out his dream. So we just told him to hang in there, that they weren't very happy apparently when we drafted Kaiden Guhle either and they're pretty happy today."