July Key Dates – It Will Be Fast and Furious!

By JD Lagrange – With the Stanley Cup finals over, seeing our own boy Artturi Lehkonen being a key contributor helping the Colorado Avalanche win, we can now fully move on to the off-season. June is coming to an end in just a few days and July promisses to be hot… in more than one way.

And it all starts with the first buyout window, which will remain open for the first 12 days of the month. With that in mind, here are the key dates for the month of July, which promises to be a very busy and, truthfully, franchise changing month for the Montreal Canadiens.

July 1 – 1st Buyout window opens

Will the Canadiens buy out one of its contracts? The most vulnerable might be Paul Byron. Here’s what the repercussion would be for the Canadiens if they chose to go that way.

SEASON	BASE SALARY	CAP HIT	SAVINGS	NEW CAP HIT
2022-23	$2.8M	$3.4M	$1.87M	$1.53M
2023-24	$0	$0	-$933,334	$933,334

The Canadiens might be better off trying to trade him instead. Even if they were to keep half his salary, it would add $1.7 million on the cap (under $200,000 more the first year), but they wouldn’t have the $933,334 on their cap in 2023-24.

July 7-8 – NHL Draft

The Canadiens have the first overall pick. Who will they select with it? Shane Wright? Juraj Slafkovsky? Or do they have something else up their sleeve? At the time of writing this, they also have 14 picks in this draft, 10 of which are in the first four rounds.

July 11 – Qualifying Offer deadline

The Canadiens currently have 10 players eligible for qualifying offers:

Alexander Romanov
Rem Pitlick
Michael Pezzetta
Kale Clague
Samuel Montembeault
Nathan Schnarr
Joel Teasdale
Josh Brook
Corey Schueneman
Cayden Primeau

July 12 – 1st Buyout window closes

That’s it for now, no more buyouts!

July 12 – Ability to offer player own player 8-years ends

The Canadiens are unlikely to make any 8-year contract offer this season, based on the current roster.

July 13 – Free agency opens

What will they do? Will Kent Hughes be able to free up enough cap to be a player on the free agency market? And if so, what will he be looking for?

July 17 – Player elected Arbitration deadline

Currently, the Canadiens have five restricted free agents who can file for arbitration:

Michael Pezzetta
Rem Pitlick
Kale Clague
Samuel Montembeault
Corey Schunemann

July 27 – 1st day of Arbitration hearings

Off those five players, if a contract hasn’t been reached, Arbitrations will be starting. Note that players and their team can reach a contract agreement any time prior to their hearing.

So as you can see, July will be a busy month and, quite frankly, a pivotal month for the Canadiens. If Kent Hughes wants to take a few weeks off in August, he has a race to the finish line by the end of this upcoming month. Expect a somewhat different team when August arrives.

More reading…