Every off-season, in silence, virtually every National Hockey League team loses the rights to some of its young prospects and former draft picks.
In effect, each NHL team lets some of the players on its reserve list go after deciding they aren’t worth a contract.
These players then become free as a bird when their deadline arrives, officially dissociating them from their NHL team.
This is a normal cycle, given that NHL teams can have a maximum of 50 active contracts, and so it forces teams to make choices.
Teams judge that some of their prospects aren’t worth one of these 50 spots.
At the Montreal Canadiens, this normal cycle is also occurring, as this summer Rhett Pitlick, Cédrick Guindon, Miguël Tourigny and Petteri Nurmi did not receive contracts and are therefore no longer Habs prospects.
The list is long, and could see another name added to it, as Ty Smilanic is not expected to receive a contract offer from the Habs.
The prospect acquired in the deal to send Ben Chiarot to Florida in 2022 could leave the team in the next few days.
The Habs have until August 15, i.e. next Thursday, to submit a contract offer to Smilanic, and logically, the Habs shouldn’t retain his rights.
Smilanic was a third-round pick (74ᵉ overall) of the Florida Panthers in 2020, but since then he’s never really taken off no matter where he’s played.
Indeed, he didn’t break anything in the NCAA, quite the opposite, and never established himself in the ECHL with the Trois-Rivières Lions.
In recent seasons,Smilanic has suffered from mental health problems.
The 22-year-old forward hasn’t had it easy, and in the end, it’s likely to cost him a pro career.
Smilanic has never been one of the Habs’ top prospects, and with all the top prospects coming up in the next few years, the Habs couldn’t afford to give a depth prospect like Smilanic a three-year contract.
The Habs currently have 44 active contracts out of 50, and Kent Hughes is sure to want to save that for the future.
