THE APEX TIMES
Montreal’s offseason priorities will be shaped not only by what GM Kent Hughes wants to add, but also by how quickly the club can reach agreements with a set of restricted free agents whose deals expire in late June.
The Montreal Canadiens’ offseason will run on two parallel tracks this summer: building for next season and settling expiring contracts. One key group sits under the restricted free agent (RFA) umbrella, meaning the Canadiens hold leverage in negotiations while those players still have an avenue to test the market in the weeks ahead.
According to Yahoo Sports, four Canadiens are expected to become RFAs at the end of June. The names highlighted are Joe Veleno, Kirby Dach, Zachary Bolduc, and Arber Xhekaj. For the Canadiens, the practical impact of those statuses is straightforward, they must determine whether to re-sign the players internally or accept that any deal could take time or become more complicated if negotiations broaden.
Yahoo Sports frames Zach Bolduc as “probably the easiest case to deal with” among the group, an assessment that suggests the player’s camp and the Canadiens are closer to aligning on terms than for some other expiring situations. Even if that is the expectation, RFA negotiations can still move slowly, especially when a club is balancing internal salary management while trying to keep a core intact.
The Canadiens’ broader context is that GM Kent Hughes is expected to improve the roster during the offseason, but that work cannot be separated from expiring contracts. Each decision affects how much cap flexibility Montreal maintains for additions, and it also affects roster construction, because retaining RFAs can reduce the urgency of replacing specific skill sets or roles.
The Canadiens will also have to consider how these players fit into the team’s short-term and medium-term plans. RFAs are often used as building blocks for continuity, but they can also become trade leverage, depending on whether negotiations stall or the club decides it needs a different direction. For fans, that means attention should quickly shift from “who is leaving” to “how quickly can Montreal re-sign its own,” and whether any of these cases become the type that drags into late negotiations.
Bolduc’s positioning as the most manageable file, as described by Yahoo Sports, will likely make him an early barometer. If Montreal can secure terms with him in a timely way, it could report that the club’s internal contract targets are realistic. If the opposite happens, it would suggest the Canadiens’ offseason priorities may require more patience and, possibly, more tough choices across multiple players at once.
For what comes next, the simplest watch items are updates to the status of each RFA, and whether Montreal reaches agreements with Veleno, Dach, Bolduc, and Xhekaj before the market is fully shaped. Any movement among one or two of the files could also influence the tone of talks for the rest, because it changes the Canadiens’ room to maneuver and the perceived likelihood of a broader settlement. Until official transaction details are confirmed, speculation should be treated as exactly that.
In the meantime, Montreal’s summer will test the team-building logic that GM Kent Hughes is expected to follow: keep the most essential pieces under contract, protect cap space for targeted additions, and avoid turning roster continuity into a prolonged uncertainty. With four RFAs clustered at the end of June, the Canadiens’ next steps will be visible quickly once negotiations begin to translate into transactions.
