Key NHL Dates Coming For Canadiens Roster Planning

The 2022 Stanley Cup Final will be done by Wednesday and the key dates for NHL roster planning are about to come at the Montreal Canadiens and NHL teams fast and furious over the next month.

Per our friends at PuckPedia, here are the key dates revised and ready to go:

1st Buyout Window:
In standard years, starts later of June 15 and 48 hours after the cup is awarded.

In the 21-22 Critical Dates Calendar, the buyout window is set to open July 1, 2022 (closes July 12). This is due to adjusted/later calendar this season.

Other key dates:
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— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) June 25, 2022

July 11 – Qualifying Offer deadline
July 12 – 1st Buyout window closes
July 12 – Ability to offer player own player 8-years ends
July 17 – Player elected Arbitration deadline
July 27 – 1st day of Arbitration hearings

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— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) June 25, 2022

First Buyout Window:

With the buyout period beginning this coming Friday, there will surely be clamouring from fans and media alike for the Montreal Canadiens use the buyout option on a player like Paul Byron as they continue their cap space clearing purge. However, as my colleague Marco D’Amico recently pointed, there’s a caveat to the $1.866 million this coming season if general manager Kent Hughes were to buyout the final two seasons of his contract. From Marco last week:

‘Let’s say the Montreal Canadiens decided they wanted to hypothetically look into buying out the contract of Paul Byron, who has one year left on his deal valued at $3.4M at a $2.8M. The Canadiens would be on the hook for 2/3 of his salary (as Byron is 33 years old), over the next two years. The equation would break down as follows:

Buying out Byron would save the Canadiens $1.866M in cap space this season, but would then strap them with $0.933M in buyout penalties for the following season, which would defeat the purpose for Kent Hughes, who is looking for long-term cap flexibility.’

Here’s a refresher on the buyout rules:

If the player is 25 years old or younger as of the moment he is bought out, the penalty is 1/3 the total salary remaining on the contract.

If the player is 26 years old or older as of the moment he is bought out, the penalty is 2/3 the total salary remaining on the contract.

As far as we can tell through multiple NHL sources, as of Sunday, it appears that the Montreal Canadiens will heed his advice, although that could easily change in the next few days as what promises to be a frenzy of roster activity gets underway. Yours truly wouldn’t do it because I think his leadership is invaluable, but one NHL executive questioned to MHN if the Canadiens may use the buyout option on 28-year-old defenceman Joel Edmundson and his three years of a $3.5 million cap hit left on his contract?

Qualifying Offer Deadline

Marco also did an informative piece on what Montreal Canadiens RFA’s may not get qualifying offers. Alexander Romanov, Rem Pitlick, Michael Pezzetta, Kale Clague, Samuel Montembeault, Nathan Schnarr, Joel Teasdale, Josh Brook, Corey Schueneman, and Cayden Primeau are all eligible for qualifying offers. You can click here for Marco’s picks to walk free, but here’s mine:

Josh Brook, Corey Schueneman, Nathan Schnarr and Kale Clague.

Offering own player eight years

The Canadiens currently have no players they would do this for.

So as the offseason rapidly approaches, things are expected to get busy later this week and as one NHL executive source above said: ‘Buckle Up!’