Canadiens: 11 days to decide the fate of 11 players

Today is June 18. The draft is eight days away, and the free-agent market opens in less than two weeks. Man, time sure flies when the Canadiens make it to the conference finals…

There's one important date, however, that very few people are talking about right now across the NHL: June 29. That's 11 days from now.

Teams have until 5:00 p.m. on June 29 to submit a qualifying offer to their restricted free agents (RFAs), regardless of whether they're eligible for arbitration. If they fail to do so, they'll lose their rights to those players.

The Canadiens have four players eligible for restricted free agency: Joe Veleno, Kirby Dach, Zackary Bolduc, and Arber Xhekaj.

Bolduc is not eligible for arbitration, while the other three will be able to ask a neutral arbitrator to determine the salary they deserve once they have received (but not signed) their qualifying offer.

Bolduc is expected to sign a bridge contract to prove he'll have a place on the roster when the team is contending for the championship. He had a strong playoff run, but he was too often invisible during the regular season.

Joe Veleno could sign a deal identical to the one he signed less than a year ago.

Kirby Dach will see the Canadiens offer him around $4 million for one year (a qualifying offer), negotiate the terms of a different contract with him (for a few seasons?), trade him, or let him become a free agent.

As for Arber Xhekaj, it's a complete mystery. His future seems to be taking shape far from Montreal, but we'll know more in the coming weeks.

Note that a restricted free agent (RFA) can choose not to sign his qualifying offer and receive competing offers from other teams. Provided he hasn't requested arbitration…

And in Laval?

Seven Rocket players could also receive a qualifying offer (or become unrestricted free agents) in the coming days: Luke Tuch, Sean Farrell, Joshua Roy, Jared Davidson, Jake Chiasson, Gannon Laroque (acquired in the Carey Price contract trade), and William Trudeau. Tuch, Farrell, Davidson, and Trudeau will be eligible for arbitration if they choose.

Not all of these players will be returning to the Habs' organization. Joshua Roy is probably the most puzzling case…

It's worth noting that Patrik Laine, Samuel Blais, Alex Belzile, Nathan Clurman, and Marc de Gaizo will all become unrestricted free agents if they don't sign new contracts by July 1. Most of them will leave Montreal/Laval.