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The
Montréal Canadiens signed a former first-round draft pick to
a one-year, $900K contract earlier today, a left-shot centre who should see time in the bottom-six (I would guess
Jake Evans is slotted as the third-line pivot which would relegate
Joe Veleno to the fourth) and will essentially replace departed free agent
Christian Dvorak.
He'd been
practising with Habs players at the team's Brossard practice facility this summer, so GM
Kent Hughes (his former agent) got to see him quite a lot before putting ink to paper.
He thus becomes the third hometown kid to get repatriated over the summer, after the free agent signing of Stanley Cup (
St. Louis Blues, 2019) and Calder Cup (
Abbottsford Canucks, 2025) winner
Sammy Blais and trade acquisition
Zachary Bolduc (from the Blues, for
Logan Mailloux).
At age 25, Veleno will aim to change the perception on his career trajectory, as the second member - with
Sean Day - of the five-man club of players granted "exceptional status" in Juniors, i.e. players who were allowed to make their Junior hockey debuts at age 15 (one year ahead of usual phenoms) and reached their prime age without achieving "impact player" status at the NHL level;
John Tavares,
Aaron Ekblad, and
Connor McDavid have all reached stardom, while a trio of youngsters who were also given that chance -
Shane Wright,
Connor Bedard, and
Michael Misa - have yet to reach those peaks but get a pass due to their age.
As a 16-year-old high schooler in 2016-17, he helped his
Saint John Sea Dogs win the LHJMQ's league championship, with 20-year-old
Matthew Highmore, 19-year-olds
Mathieu Joseph,
Thomas Chabot, and
Jakub Zboril, and 18-year-old
Julien Gauthier.
He split the next season between the Sea Dogs (6 goals, 25 assists and 31 points in 31 games, with 26 penalty minutes and a -10 rating) and
Drummondville Voltigeurs (16 goals, 32 assists and 48 points in 33 games, with 22 penalty minutes and a +14 rating, plus 11 points and 10 PIMs in 10 playof games), leading the
Detroit Red Wings to pick him 30th overall at the 2018 draft, ahead of
Alexander Romanov (
Montréal Canadiens, 38th),
Ryan McLeod (
Edmonton Oilers, 40th),
Jack Drury (
Carolina Hurricanes, 42nd),
Martin Fehervary (
Washington Capitals, 46th),
Kirill Marchenko (
Columbus Blue Jackets, 49th),
Sean Durzi (
Toronto Maple Leafs, 52nd),
Jack McBain (
Minnesota Wild, 63rd),
Lukas Dostal (
Anaheim Ducks, 85th), and
Philipp Kurashev (
Chicago Blackhawks, 120th). With 306 NHL games played, Veleno currently ranks 15th in his draft class, while his 81 points place him 22nd for now.
He followed that up with 104 points (42 goals, 62 assists) in 59 games in 2018-19, with 19 penalty minutes and an astonishing +63 plus/minus rating for his final season in Juniors before turning pro. He then posted 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) in 54 games with the AHL's
Grand Rapids Griffins in 2019-20, opted to play overseas with the
Malmö Redhawks (20 points and 18 penalty minutes in 46 games) before finishing the season with the Griffins (3 points and 4 PIMs in 4 games) and Red Wings (1 point and 4 PIMs in 5 games). He's mostly been an NHL regular with the underwhelming Wings and Blackhawks these past three seasons. This upcoming season may well be his first true shot at a playoff berth in the NHL as the Habs look to repeat last season's success and perhaps even go deeper in the postseason.
Here is the Player of The Day sporting
Team Canada's red uniform in the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, where his team placed fifth, on card #70 from
Upper Deck's
2017-18 Team Canada Juniors set, signed a couple of years ago in blue sharpie:
He captained the team to the championship the following season. As a matter of fact, his international record is pretty stellar, with gold medals at the 2020 World Juniors (6 points in 6 games as assistant-capitan) and 2023 World Championships (5 points in 5 games with current Habs teammates Blais and
Samuel Montembeault), and fellow Quebecers
Devon Levi and
Pierre-Olivier Joseph).
