I don't think anyone thought he was

The Laval Rocket announced Monday that the team has agreed to terms on a one-year, one-way contract (2021-22 - AHL) with defenseman Tory Dello.#GoRocket pic.twitter.com/qdTgC9Jyb0

— Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) July 12, 2021

Laval has a 6th D now. Right-handed, 24 years old, had 2 assists in 19 games for Grand Rapids this past year. If they don’t sign anyone else he’ll likely be the 6th defenseman until one of Guhle, Norlinder, and/or Harris join the team.

There’s 3 days until Montréal needs to submit their expansion draft protection list. Before then they need to sign one of:
- Phillip Danault
- Corey Perry
- Michael Frolík
- Joel Armia
- Tomáš Tatar
- Eric Staal

If none of them are signed by Saturday, they will need to expose (in addition to Byron), one of Anderson, Toffoli, Drouin, Kotkaniemi, Lehkonen, or Evans.

I’m guessing/hoping that Perry is re-signed before then, and he asks Seattle not to pick him. (Like Spezza will do in Toronto, although the Kraken aren’t picking him anyways) If they can’t get that done they really have to hope that Seattle doesn’t fancy Evans/Lehkonen ahead of Chiarot/Allen.

I think Montreal is trying to trade Allen and get a back a goalie under contract, a forward under contract, and a pick

Is this from a source, or just speculation? Because Montréal really doesn’t need another forward, and trading for one just for the expansion draft isn’t cost effective when you could just sign Frolík for free.

As for trading Allen, that’s an interesting idea, but if you trade him before the expansion draft that just makes it all the more likely that Seattle picks Chiarot. And now we’re losing 2 players instead of 1. It would probably be better to just let Seattle pick who they pick.

Assuming the habs protect:
F: Drouin, Anderson, Kotkaniemi, Toffoli, Evans, Lehkonen, Gallagher
D: Petry, Weber, Edmundson
G: Price

This is the order in which I think the habs would be ok with Seattle taking, from best case scenario to worst-case scenario:

1. Michael Pezzetta/Tomáš Tatar/Michael Frolík/Eric Staal/Erik Gustafsson/Gustav Olofsson/Charles Hudon/Brandon Baddock
2. Joel Armia/Jon Merrill/Alex Belzile/Joseph Blandisi
3. Xavier Ouellet/Lukas Vejdemo/Laurent Dauphin
4. Paul Byron
5. Brett Kulak
6. Cale Fleury
7. Jake Allen
8. Ben Chiarot
9. Phillip Danault
*Corey Perry*

Danault is so low (despite the fact that he’s a UFA) because if they pick him, it means that Seattle is almost certainly signing him.

I’d prefer losing Chiarot over Allen, we probably will sign Danault and let Lehkonen be our 2nd forward requirement

I’m just thinking that Allen’s position is more easily replaceable.

Also if Danault is staying I don’t see why he can’t wait 4 days to sign. Corey Perry can meet the exposure requirements, and we know he’s willing to come back.

Good point, I don’t think MB wants to lose Chiarot but it makes sense, also yeah Perry’s probably the other player

It's from a rumor, I'm pretty sure on the 31 thoughts podcast, that Montreal doesn't want lose Allen for nothing. I'm speculating the return. And as for losing Chiarot that frees up decent cap space, which this offseason is crucial because of everyone available.

I would leave Weber unprotected. Nobody is taking his contract for free, and it lets them protect Kulak or Fluery.

Freeing up cap space is all well and good, but we have to use the cap space to fill the hole left by Chiarot. And there’s only so many players available, so there’s no guarantees we’re able to land a D, and we’re left short a top 4 D. Although I guess since he’s a UFA now, if we’re sure that we could land Suter it would be fine to lose Chiarot.

Kulak is likely gone no matter what. Fleury isn’t worth protecting. Weber had a good playoffs and the team wouldn’t be able to function without him, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t protect him.

We wouldn't protect Weber because Seattle isn't touching that contract. If they do it's a massive W. Would be a good opportunity to pick up a good defender for cheap that another team can't protect. Also there's 0 chance Montreal protects Drouin. He won't even play for the team and has 0 value with that contract.

We can’t know that for sure until we know what’s going on with Drouin but he has value to the team and we should keep him

I just don't think it's worth it to protect a player who doesn't (allegedly) want to play here. It's 5.5 Million and let's face it, he's not that good anyways.

Who’s giving these allegations then?

That's the perception I've gotten from people on twitter, there's not a lot about it so I'm going on whT I've heard/seen

People on twitter? I’m assuming these are people that are close to Jo, because if not, that isn’t exactly reliable by any means.

I’m hearing the @CanadiensMTL won't protect Shea Weber for the expansion draft. Following the latest medical evaluations, he could miss all of next season. If not more.

— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) July 14, 2021

So Montréal saw what Tampa Bay did and decided to copy them.

But in all seriousness, what the f*ckity, f*ck? His best hockey of the year was in the playoffs, and a finger injury couldn’t take him out for an entire year. If that’s true, 1 that’s terrible, and 2 Montréal’s in for a ridiculous offseason.

@Poehling

Post this stuff here.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/canadiens-shea-webers-career-threatened-lingering-foot-ankle-problems/

So, Dougie Hamilton? Because Montréal is badly in need of good defensemen, and they have a bunch of cap space.

I've got mixed feelings about this tbh. Weber is the captain and all but is not nearly the $8M defender he's paid to be. I'd say go big on Hamilton or Pulock the year after.

With Weber most likely done, the team is now very weak on the RH. Petry's age means he will decline....eventually. After that we got Cale Fleury....... So yeah, its Hamilton time!