The Montreal Canadiens have brought in multiple new players this off-season. While this is the case, they also lost a handful of players from last season's roster.
One of the Canadiens' most notable off-season departures was Joel Armia. After not re-signing with the Canadiens by July 1, Armia became an unrestricted free agent (UFA) and signed a two-year, $5 million contract with the Los Angeles Kings. With this, he is now expected to boost the bottom half of the Kings' forward group.
With the Canadiens having a plethora of promising young forwards in their system, it was not necessarily surprising to see them move on from Armia. However, while this is the case, they will miss what the veteran forward provided for them.
Although Armia was not a star during his seven-year stint with the Canadiens, he worked well in their bottom six and was a very important part of their penalty kill because of his strong two-way play. As a result of this, the Canadiens will now need to adjust without him in their lineup.
Armia also had another solid season with the Canadiens in 2024-25. In 81 games this past season, he recorded 11 goals, 29 points, and 87 hits. This was after he scored a career-high 17 goals and recorded 25 points in 66 games with the Canadiens in 2023-24. Thus, he gave the Canadiens' bottom six decent secondary production to go along in addition to his strong defensive play.
This is exactly why Armia was able to land the nice contract he did with the Kings, and it will be intriguing to see how the Canadiens replace him in their bottom six from here.
Canadiens Made Great Move With Important ForwardMontreal Canadiens forward Jake Evans had a strong year in 2024-25. In 82 games with the Original Six club, he scored 13 goals and set new career highs with 23 assists, 36 points, and 124 hits. With numbers like these, he provided the Canadiens with solid depth offensive production to go along with a nice amount of grit.
Photo Credit: © Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
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