Alex Belzile will be back with Laval for next season. He’ll have a chance to see NHL action as well after the Habs signed him to a one-year, two-way contract on Friday. The deal will see him earn $700,000 at the NHL level, $175,000 in the minors, and contains a $200,000 total guarantee.
The 27-year-old signed a minor league contract with the Rocket back on July 1st and vastly surpassed expectations. He went from being a middle six player with Colorado’s farm team the year before to a near-permanent front line fixture in Laval. As a result, Belzile had a career season, posting 54 points in 74 games to lead the Rocket in scoring. For perspective, he had 56 combined points over his previous three AHL seasons (spanning 131 games).
Although he’s well past the age for waivers for typical players, Belzile will actually be exempt for the entire 2019-20 season regardless of how many NHL games he plays. Having said that, it’s rather unlikely that he’ll see much ice time with Montreal at least to start next season unless they wind up getting rid of quite a few players over the summer. At the very least, Laval will have their leading scorer back for next season.
It’s worth noting that with only 219 career AHL games played, Belzile won’t count against the veteran limit for the Rocket. While he also has 168 games in the pros at the ECHL level, games played down there do not count against the veteran limit.