I'll never understand why these kinds of little deals get people so worked up. These types of contracts for lower-tier prospects/depth players are basically all implied by the CBA and are heavily dependent on age/arbitration status for players who haven't separated themselves from the pack like Caufield. There are dozens of Jesse Ylonens around the NHL and they all pretty much sign two-way deals for 1 or 2 years around 800k as they have no arbitration rights and don't really have bargaining power for anything more.
The deal being 2-way isn't even necessarily a bad thing for Ylonen since it's only one year. It means that if he's placed on waivers he's far more likely to get claimed and might get a chance with another team if the Habs don't have room to use him since his AHL salary would be lower if it didn't work out on that second team. On a 1-way deal he'd be much more likely to clear waivers and play in the AHL like Primeau if the Habs decided to waive him (which I don't expect them to do, but it's still a possibility).
They gave him something like 50k more than league minimum to be a 12/13/14th forward who fights a little. He's two years older than Ylonen, and had arbitration rights so had more power to get a contract like that in arbitration based on his NHL GP and points so they gave him 2 years slightly above the minimum to be a good locker room guy and a 12/13th forward goon. It has nothing to do with Ylonen.
Because he isn't and wasn't NHL ready, they still believed in his potential, so they gave him a 1-way deal to discourage other teams from claiming him on waivers. Primeau was also willing to accept it, we don't know if Ylonen would accept a similar 3 year contract, and in Ylonen's position, I would not accept that kind of deal and place a hard ceiling on my earnings in year 2 & 3.
RHP is a year older than Ylonen, had arbitration rights and would have had a decent case with 20P in 34 games this year, and was better as an NHLer than Ylonen. Team and player compromised on a 2 year deal that gives Harvey-Pinard a little more money than he's "earned" but would represent a discount for the team if he lives up to last season.
We have no indication they played hardball with Ylonen. For all we know the Habs wanted to give him 2 years and Ylonen was the one that insisted on a 1 year deal that would take him to arbitration and/or set him up for a bigger extension if he has a good year. This is a completely normal contract and process. Here is a list of RFAs that signed 2-way deals, there are dozens and dozens of these contracts around the league.
The deal being 2-way isn't even necessarily a bad thing for Ylonen since it's only one year. It means that if he's placed on waivers he's far more likely to get claimed and might get a chance with another team if the Habs don't have room to use him since his AHL salary would be lower if it didn't work out on that second team. On a 1-way deal he'd be much more likely to clear waivers and play in the AHL like Primeau if the Habs decided to waive him (which I don't expect them to do, but it's still a possibility).
No it's not. It's certainly possible they don't see him as a long term piece but this contract gives us zero indication to that effect. All it tells us is that one or both of the two parties were not ready to sign something for 2-3 years or longer so they agreed to go for 1 year and evaluate again next summer. Signing a 2 year deal wouldn't have really indicated anything different, RHP and Pezzetta's contracts certainly don't indicate the Habs see them as long-term core pieces either, they just had better bargaining power so they got slightly better deals.
