5 young players about to leave the Canadiens including one surprise

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Elias Edmonson
May 25, 2024 (7:54 PM)

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Kent Hughes will have some big decisions to make this summer, and five players will be particularly involved.

The Habs will have to decide regarding certain prospects. Like every year, they could lose the rights to players selected in recent drafts.

When an NHL club selects a prospect, it acquires exclusive rights to that player for a certain period, which varies depending on the region or league they come from. For example, the rights to a player drafted in the Canadian major junior (CHL) belong to an NHL club for a maximum of two years. If, after two years, the team decides not to recruit the player, he can return to the draft for another team to sign him.

However, in Europe or the NCAA, once your rights expire after four years, you become a free agent able to sign with any team in the league, rather than returning to the draft like CHL players.

Below is the limit for each region in terms of signing prospects:

Canadian major junior: 2 years
NCAA: After finishing the last year of college, generally 4 years.
Europe: 4 years
Russia: indefinitely

Five prospects about to leave the Canadiens and be released by Kent Hughes, including the promising Jared Davidson?

Knowing this and seeing how the Canadiens have drafted in recent years, it's normal for many prospects to leave the organization after the deadline to reach an agreement with the club has expired. In a recent column, the excellent Marco D'Amico of the site MTLHockeyNow listed the five players whose rights will expire this summer.

They are:

Blake Biondi (21 years old) 4th round pick in 2020
Jared Davidson (21 years old) 5th round pick in 2022
Cedrick Guindon (19 years old) 4th round pick in 2022
Petteri Nurmi (21 years old) 7th round pick in 2022
Miguel Tourigny (21 years old) 7th round pick in 2022

According to D'Amico, only Davidson might have a chance to sign an entry-level NHL contract with the CH. A 2-year contract with him, who will soon be 22, would give the club flexibility if the forward doesn't perform as expected in the medium term.

That said, he is still at risk.

While it would be tempting to sign everyone to see how they perform over the next few years, it's impossible. The league has imposed a 50-contract limit, which forces GMs to make often painful decisions regarding their prospects. Especially, as seen above, if they come from the Canadian system.

It's also important to know that if nothing changes, the CH will have 24 picks in the next two drafts. Of these picks, 12 will be in the first three rounds (2024 and 2025 combined). So, it's very likely that some very good young players will be selected, and the CH will need to be careful in the coming years to keep space to offer them an entry-level contract.