With qualifying offers due ahead of free agency, the Montreal Canadiens have revealed their decisions on their six pending restricted free agents. The organization has chosen to retain the rights of Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron, allowing the others to become unrestricted NHL free agents.
Qualified RFAs
Xhekaj has now played two NHL seasons, but signed his ELC when he was 20 years old, meaning the first year spent in the OHL in 2021-22 counted toward the three he had before becoming an RFA. For the second year in a row, his season was cut short by shoulder surgery — the left side after having his right worked on a year ago — and was limited to 44 games, registering 10 points and finishing with a +6 goal differential.
His one-year qualifying offer has a set value of $813,750, and it’s highly unlikely he will sign it as his contract for next season. On a related note, he, and brother Florian, just switched agents on Sunday, now represented by Bartlett Hockey.
Barron set a new career high of seven goals at the NHL level in 2023-24, playing 48 games with the Canadiens and 32 with the AHL’s Laval Rocket. He also finished with the highest average ice time of his career at 18:37 per game. His qualifying offer has a value of $874,125.
Unqualified RFAs
Jesse Ylönen was the other pending RFA to see significant time in the NHL last season. He contributed eight points in 59 games, less than half of what he’d achieved in 37 games the previous year. He wasn’t able to reach the lofty potential he had in Montreal, and will now move on to a different environment.
Mattias Norlinder was the other player on the list whom the Canadiens had brought into the organization through the draft, and another player who showed a lot promise, even looking good enough to make the Habs in the 2023 pre-season. But he never found any consistency in North America to threaten for a spot after that.
Lias Andersson was excited to get a new opportunity to play for an NHL team when he signed as a free agent last off-season. He never got into a game with the Canadiens, spending the entire season in the AHL. He has already signed a contract for the 2024-25 campaign with Swiss National League team Biel Bienne.
Filip Cederqvist was one of the first players to be linked to a new team for next year, signing with Frölunda HC of the SHL shortly after the Laval Rocket’s season ended. He contributed just seven points in 34 games with the AHL team after being acquired from the Rochester Americans partway through the season.
Montreal currently has 12 players set for restricted free agency next year, including Juraj Slafkovský, Kaiden Guhle, Jayden Struble, and Jakub Dobes. We can expect some of these players to receive contract extensions well before this time a year from now, and possibly as soon as the next few weeks for the first two in the list.
