Guhle - Matheson
Xhekaj - Savard
Hutson - Struble
Barron - Mailloux
Harris - Reinbacher
Kovacevic
All of them could be ready to start the year. How many do we trades, force to play in the AHL or loose to waivers?
Regarding waiver-eligibility, here's the breakdown for the Habs' young D :
-
Harris is already waiver-eligible
-
Barron signed his contract at 20 years old, so his 3-seasons protection window ends this summer. He thus becomes waiver-eligible
at the start of next season.
-
Struble signed his contract at 22 years old, so his 3-seasons protection window would end after the 2025-2026. Since he should hit 70 GP in the course of next season however (
15 games remaining), he'll become waiver-eligible by then.
-
Guhle signed his contract at 18 years old and would have had a 5-seasons protection window (2025-2026). Since he should hit 160 GP in the course of next season however (
46 games remaining), he'll become waiver-eligible by then.
-
Xhekaj signed his contract at 20 years old and would have a 3-seasons protection window (2025-2026). He could however hit 160 GP in the course of next year (
65 games remaining) and become waiver-eligible by then.
-
Mailloux signed his contract at 19 years old, so he has a 4 seasons (2026-2027 or 160 GP protection window (
159 games remaining).
-
Hutson and
Reinbacher signed their respective contracts at 19 years old, so they have a 4-seasons (2027-2028) or 160 GP protection window (
159 and 160 games remaining respectively).
In summary, Harris, Guhle, Barron, Struble and Xhekaj could all in principle become waiver-eligible before the end of 2024-2025.
So if the Habs keep Matheson/Savard and want to integrate either Hutson/Reinbacher/Mailloux next season, they likely have to trade a couple of D to avoid losing assets for nothing.