So Jordan Harris’ season is officially over for Northeastern. The habs have offered him an ELC, so Harris can now decide to either sign it and join the habs/Rocket now, or he could hold off and continue the rest of the year at school, and sign in the summer.

If he does sign an ELC, he’ll need to quarantine for 2 weeks, and he’ll burn the 1st year of his ELC if he plays a game in the NHL. If that’s the case he’d probably arrive on April 12th (trade deadline day) or shortly thereafter. (Which would be 2-4 weeks before Ben Chiarot is supposed to return, with 14 NHL games left, and 10 AHL games left)

Also Cole Caufield’s season will end on either April 8th or 10th, so he would be able to join the team around April 24th give or take a few days (8 NHL games left, 8 AHL games left)*.

*On April 24th the habs would be in the midst of a western road trip, so Caufield might not be able to join the NHL team until April 28th when they return to Montréal, with 6 games left. He could practice with Laval during that time, but they don’t play any games until April 30th.

Also, note that 4 of the remaining AHL games occur after the end of Montréal’s regular season.

Anyways, I think that the most likely situation for both players is that they join Laval and play games there. Harris might have a bit better of an opportunity, and the ability to prove himself and earn a promotion while Chiarot is out. Although I still think that’s very unlikely. The only way I see Caufield getting into the lineup is if 2 forwards are injured (as long as both of them aren’t PKers), or if the habs have already clinched a playoff spot and they’re maybe resting someone like Corey Perry.

agree with harris but with caufield i think

toffoli - kotkaniemi - gallagher
drouin - suzuki - anderson
tatar - danault - caufield
armia - byron - perry

scratched: Lehkonen, Evans (lehkonen could be traded at TDL)
and at that point in the season unfortunatly you have to imagine that there would be some injuries so evans probably has a spot
and if you say caufield is not ready look at zegras and drysdale, zegras and caufield are same level right now i think and drysdale was drafted just a couple months ago and not as a top 3 pick

If we have 2 injuries like I said, then that’s fine (as long as they’re not both at C obviously). But especially with the games being very important, we know that Artturi Lehkonen is going to be a very solid player, while there’s still a learning curve for Caufield. Let him play in Laval to start, and if we get more injuries or have a game that isn’t potentially season-deciding.

MON announces D prospect Jordan Harris will return to Northeastern

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 22, 2021

Uh oh....

we have his rights until August 15 2022, it's not a problem

I wouldn’t be worried about him leaving. And sure, it would probably be better for his development to play in Laval next year, but it’s his prerogative. If he wants to finish his schooling so he can have more career opportunities after hockey, then that’s great for him.

This is what I’m talking about. Towards the end of this video, Jordan Harris expands on his desire to stay four years at Northeastern when asked by @glefrancoisLP. Important to note he had been drafted maybe 30 minutes earlier. This was always the plan. https://t.co/kX3mtoiLUF

— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) March 22, 2021

So KK and Armia are on the COVID Protocol List. In the unlikely event that the game continues as normal and they don’t play, Michael Frolík would make his habs debut, and either Laurent Dauphin would slot in, or Ouellet could slot in and Mete could play forward.

Great, Toffoli’s out, Chiarot’s out,Kk and Armia are on covid list, what’s next?

the game is postponed 😢

Might be for the best, we might have Toffoli back for our next game now, and the break might help Ducharme

If the games do get postponed until the earliest Toffoli is back (Sunday) then the habs have a lot bigger problems with an extremely compressed schedule.

I just noticed that Carter Hutton got injured, so it’s now a battle of former habs goalies in the BUF vs. NYR games. Kinkaid vs. Tokarski. As expected, they both have sub-.900 save percentages.

The @CanadiensMTL’s games have been postponed through Sunday, March 28. https://t.co/zerM5CgqBf pic.twitter.com/rkH8qw83RN

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 23, 2021

Tabarnak.

Well considering the fact that Montréal will likely have 3 games after Calgary’s last 3 games, and considering how Calgary has been playing of late, the odds of Cole Caufield getting into an NHL game this year are increasing by the day.

According to @SeanOBrien81's model, Otto Leskinen is among the best, if not the best, defenceman in the American Hockey League right now. #GoHabsGo https://t.co/XT1He4UJLu pic.twitter.com/EF73jgGOLe

— Andrew Zadarnowski (@AZadarski) March 25, 2021

Would look nice next to Weber🤷🏻‍♂️

So Cole Caufield’s season could be over tomorrow (Friday) or the day after (Saturday). So now that the quarantine has been reduced, and now that 4 games will be postponed, he could join the team on or before April 5th, at which point the habs would have 22 games left in the season. (Although it would likely take a few extra days for stuff like getting his paperwork in order, and doing anything he needs to do with his things back in Wisconsin)

If Wisconsin wins their next 2 games to make the semifinals, it pushes his arrival back 2 weeks.

The way Jesse Ylönen is playing this year for Laval is making Joel Armia look more and more expendable for next year.

He kinda already is with Caufield's arrival.

Well yes, but I meant as a 4th line option. Plus Caufield would be replacing Tatar more than anyone.

Yeah but both wings are stacked. I'd bring back Perry over Armia any time.

And Perry would be cheaper most likely

I’d love to bring back Perry, but I don’t want to overpay him, and I don’t think it’s wise to count on a 36 year old to be in the lineup every night. With Ylönen, now we have another option for the 4th line so we don’t need to bring back Perry and Armia.

And thinking about our forwards for next year, it would be really great if Caufield is able to play LW, since then the wings are a lot more balanced and the forwards are more flexible.

Now what’s going to be really interesting is what happens with Artturi Lehkonen this summer. Does he get protected in the expansion draft, and what does his contract look like? And what is his role next year?

I don’t know how cheap Perry will be. I was originally under the impression he took a discount to come here, but the habs were legitimately the only team that offered him a contract. With the season he’s had, I wonder what the market will be like for him next year.