Habs sign Joe Veleno
The Habs have added some extra depth down the middle as they announced on Wednesday that they’ve signed Joe Veleno to a one-year contract. The deal is believed to be worth $900,000.
The 25-year-old was a first-round pick by Detroit back in 2018, going 30th overall. Originally an exception status player in the QMJHL, Veleno spent four years there as an above-average offensive contributor, tallying 90 goals and 176 in 230 games.
However, Veleno hasn’t been able to rediscover at the offensive touch in the NHL, surpassing the 20-point mark only once, that coming back in 2023-24 with the Red Wings when he had 12 goals and 16 assists in 80 games.
Last season, Veleno was with Detroit until the trade deadline when he was moved to Chicago for goaltender Petr Mrazek. Between the two teams, he played in 74 games, collecting eight goals and nine assists along with 139 hits and a -23 rating in just over 12 minutes of playing time per game. Veleno was traded to Seattle last month for Andre Burakovsky and was subsequently bought out by the Kraken a few days later.
While Veleno hasn’t been much of a producer in the NHL – he has just 38 goals and 43 assists in 306 games, he has been a regular penalty killer over the last several seasons. With the Habs losing Joel Armia and Christian Dvorak in free agency, it stands to reason that Veleno will take one of their spots on one of Montreal’s shorthanded units next season.
One other area that Veleno could potentially help in is centre. A left-shot middleman is an area the Habs don’t have much of – it starts and ends with Alex Newhook – and Veleno is one of those. However, he has generally been below average at the faceoff dot; his 46.9% success rate last year was actually higher than his career average of 46.5%.
While Montreal got Veleno as an unrestricted free agent, he actually has a year of RFA eligibility remaining, albeit with arbitration rights. So, if things go well, it’s possible that he could be more than just a one-year addition in the end.