Canadiens: About The Joe Veleno Signing

While most Montreal Canadiens fans were hoping their team would find a way to add a second-line center, GM Kent Hughes went out and signed free agent Joe Veleno to a one-year, one-way contract.

This is not the top-six upgrade the Canadiens are so desperate for, but it does add depth down the middle and a much-needed left-shot pivot. Veleno was the Detroit Red Wings' first-round pick, 30th overall, at the 2018 draft. While he became the first player to be granted exceptional status to play in the QMJHL as a 15-year-old, he never lived up to the hype or expectations in the big league.

It took him some time to acclimate to the QMJHL, scoring 43 and 40 points in his first two seasons, 79 points in his third year, before finally exploding with a 104-point campaign in 2018-19.

Scouting reports were optimistic that he could become a second-line center in the NHL, but so far, the most points he has registered in a season is 28, a total he achieved in the 2023-24 season. Jake Evans, a seventh-round pick, has had three seasons as productive or even more productive than that.

Six years after drafting him, the Red Wings finally gave up and traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks at the last trade deadline in return for Petr Mrazek and Craig Smith. At that point, he had just 10 points in 56 games. With the Hawks, he skated in just 18 games and put up seven points. In the offseason, he was then traded to the Seattle Kraken and was promptly bought out, making him an unrestricted free agent.

There have been rumbles about the Canadiens being interested in the Montreal native for the last couple of weeks, but the noise had all but died down when the team announced they had signed him to a one-year, one-way contract with a $900,000 AAV. Upon expiry of the deal, he will be an arbitration-eligible RFA.

The Montreal-born forward is getting an opportunity to bounce back on his home turn, and one can wonder if this market’s pressure cooker is the right place for him to do it, but considering how things have turned out for him in the NHL, the expectations shouldn’t be too high.

As things stand, he seems best suited for a bottom-six role, but don’t expect him to fill the void left by Christian Dvorak’s departure at the faceoff dot. The former Hab had a 53.1% success rate on draws while Veleno’s stands at just 46.6%. Still, that’s a much better number than Kirby Dach’s (36.1%) and Alex Newhook’s (41.8%).

The center represented Canada at the 2023 World Championship and came back with a gold medal, but he was suspended for five games during the tournament for a stomping incident. He ended up playing the first five games of the tournament, in which he recorded five points. Current Canadiens Samuel Montembeault and Samuel Blais were his teammates in that tournament.

Why couldn’t Veleno reach his potential in the NHL? Well, perhaps the hype was exaggerated when he came out of Junior’s, given the fact that he only produced over 100 points once. Offensive production in the minor league doesn’t always translate to the professional level, and an exceptional status early on at a lower level is no guarantee of success at a later stage. His lack of production didn’t stem from injury issues, either, since he has managed to stay healthy.

In any case, this is a low-risk depth move for the Canadiens, who now have a somewhat overcrowded bottom-six, which may prompt youngsters like Owen Beck and Oliver Kapanen to wonder if there will be room for them in the lineup this season, provided they impress at camp. Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson, Evans, Blais, Alex Newhook, Beck, Kapanen, and now Veleno could all be vying for those roles. Could this be a sign that something else may be on the way? You never know with Hughes.

Veleno becomes the 12th former first-round pick in the Canadiens’ lineup with Zachary Bolduc, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, Ivan Demidov, Noah Dobson, Patrik Laine, Mike Matheson, Newhook, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Nick Suzuki. 10 of the 12 former first-rounders are 25 years old or younger, with Laine (27) and Matheson (31) being the elders.

Furthermore, Veleno also joins a substantial group of Quebecers on the Canadiens, alongside Montembeault, Matheson, Alexandre Carrier, Bolduc, and Blais, which is sure to please those who have always lamented the lack of local players with the Sainte-Flanelle.