NHL Waivers: Top 10 Drafted Defenceman Available To Canadiens

The Florida Panthers have announced they have placed defenceman Adam Boqvist on NHL waivers, and given the Montreal Canadiens recently lost one of their defencemen to a long-term injury, there may be some interest in the 24-year-old Swede.

Boqvist was drafted 8th overall in 2018 by the Chicago Blackhawks, where he played two seasons before being involved in the trade that saw Seth Jones join the Hawks from the Columbus Blue Jackets. He spent another two years with the Blue Jackets, but things ended poorly, as the team bought out the final year of his deal, which carried $2.6 million annual average value (AAV).

The Panthers ended up signing him to a reasonable $775,000 contract this summer. He played 18 games for the Panthers in 2024-25, scoring two goals and four assists. It’s also worth noting he played alongside his brother, Jesper, who is a forward.

I probably wouldn’t suggest this is a logical claim for the Canadiens, but now that Kaiden Guhle is out of the mix for the foreseeable future, adding defensive reinforcements seem more likely. They could turn to Laval, where Adam Engstrom and Logan Mailloux are poised to take the next step in their development, but if the team wants to protect their prospects, a claim on Boqvist could serve as a band-aid solution.

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Boqvist is relatively young, which means there’s some untapped potential in play, but we do have to recognize that he’s far from a defensive specialist. He’s currently sporting a 52 percent share of shots while he’s on the ice, but his expected goals percentage is barely above 46 percent, a significant red flag when we consider the Panthers are a Stanley Cup contender. In fact, Boqvist is yet to produce an xGF% above 50 since he entered the league in 2019.

It could be a low risk, medium reward situation, as Boqvist’s cap space is easily absorbed, and if no team below the Canadiens in the standings decided to use the NHL waivers, the Canadiens could acquire him for free, but the question remains whether he’d be a clear update on the internal options available to the Montreal Canadiens at the moment.