The Montreal Canadiens caught some flak at the draft after not selecting a single player from Quebec nor the QMJHL at the 2024 NHL Draft.
Perhaps an unwarranted criticism as their first round selection Michael Hage's father was born in Montreal and francophone, and they selected Aatos Koivu, the son of Habs legend Saku.
Regardless, Martin Lapointe -- the Habs director of player personnel -- felt like he needed to quell the storm and he had an ace up his sleeve.
Mikus Vecvanags, the Canadiens fifth round selection, was just that.
"Actually, he's going to play in Blainville," Lapointe said after the draft at a press conference.
Vecvanags would be an major add to practically any QMJHL team as he's coming off a number of games in the Latvian pro hockey circuit. In the main league, he posted a strong .908 save percentage over nine games and was even trusted to play in the playoffs where he held his own with a .907 over 3 games.
At the time, no CHL team owned Vecvanags rights which meant that he would've had to have still gone through the import draft.
By July 3rd, that was no longer the case as Vecvanags had been finally drafted to the QMJHL, although not to Blainville.
The Acadie-Bathurst Titan swooped in just three spots ahead of Blainville and selected the Latvian goaltender, likely to replace departing import goaltender Antoine Keller (WSH).
Despite this, his name is absent from the Titan's pre-season rosters.
EliteProspects still has Vecvanags listed as being without a team for next season. He could very well return to Latvia, which for the Habs probably isn't ideal. He wasn't selected in the USHL draft either, which prevents him from pulling a Juraj Pekarcik and signing in the USHL for a season-- a fellow Acadie-Bathurst import selection who didn't report.
It's also entirely possible he reports later on, as other players have done such as Pavel Zacha with the Sarnia Sting, who had threatened to not report with Sarnia before eventually signing and playing there.
Regardless, they still retain his rights as he's listed on the website as part of the pre-season roster, and so is Antoine Keller despite signing in Switzerland. That said, it is still unclear whether he will start the season in the QMJHL as he was once expected to.