With Matt D’Agostini joining Greg Stewart, Kyle Chipchura, and Guillaume Latendresse as players who have signed for less than they earned last season, the Habs have a bit more flexibility than many expected after their UFA shopping spree in July.
The Habs’ streak of avoiding salary arbitration with their players will live to see another year after Tomas Plekanec signed a 1 year, $2.75 M contract with the team on Tuesday.
With Marc Denis on his way out of Hamilton, the Habs picked up his replacement Monday signing former Vancouver backup Curtis Sanford to a 1-year, two-way contract.
With Wednesday being the final day to accept qualifying offers, a pair of Habs jumped the gun, as Guillaume Latendresse and Shawn Belle each signed 1-year contracts.
The 2009-10 NHL schedule was released on Wednesday. The Habs will begin the season on October 1st in Toronto, the first of a 5-game road trip before their home opener on October 15th vs Colorado, which is the first of a 6-game homestand interestingly eno
On Monday, the Habs continued to add free agents to the fold, this time adding to their prospect base by signing Swedish centre Andreas Engqvist to a 3 year entry level deal.
With what appears to be all of the new unrestricted free agents in the fold and some of the RFA’s re-upping with the team, let’s revisit the Habs’ cap situation.
Just when you thought the Habs were done, GM Bob Gainey struck again, this time with the signing of free agent LW Travis Moen to a 3 year contract.
Although many felt that GM Bob Gainey would wait until the end of the summer to bolster Montreal’s blue line depth, he opted to take care of it much sooner, adding D Paul Mara to the fold on a 1 year contract.
The end of an era came about on Wednesday afternoon, as it was announced that Saku Koivu, the 3rd longest tenured captain in franchise history in terms of games captained, had signed in Anaheim.