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Michael Pezzetta

Injury Notes: Mantha, Stephenson, Barron, Pezzetta

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In the team’s game tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks, Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Vegas Golden Knights’ forwards Anthony Mantha and Chandler Stephenson are both considered day-to-day due to injuries. Keeping that in mind, it is unlikely that either Mantha or Stephenson will draw into the lineup tonight as the Golden Knights prepare to defend their Stanley Cup title.

Mantha, who Vegas acquired from the Washington Capitals during this past trade deadline season, has played in 18 games for the organization up to this point. In those 18 contests, Mantha has been serviceable even though his goal-scoring rate has decreased, putting up three goals and 10 points altogether.

Joining Mantha on the list of Golden Knights expected to reach unrestricted free agency this summer, Stephenson has once again been a massive return on investment in Vegas. Making a salary of only $2.75MM this season, Stephenson has put up 16 goals and 51 points in 65 games overall, sitting fifth on the team in scoring.

Other injury notes:

  • As the Winnipeg Jets look to clinch second place in the Central Division for the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, they will have to do so without forward Morgan Barron as the team announced he would miss the rest of the game tonight with a lower-body injury. During the game, Barron was only able to register 2:23 of ice time and registered zero points but did reach a 100% faceoff rate in the game.
  • In a similar fashion to Barron, the Montreal Canadiens will be without forward Michael Pezzetta for the remainder of their game and the season with an upper-body injury (X Link). As a depth forward for the team, Pezzetta was only able to register 25 seconds of ice time over one shift, and left the game after the end of the first period.

Montreal Canadiens Sign Michael Pezzetta To Two-Year Contract Extension

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The Montreal Canadiens have announced that forward Michael Pezzetta has been signed to a two-year, one-way $812.5k contract extension.

With this extension, Pezzetta will avoid having to become a restricted free agent at the start of the new league year next month, and now has a contract that will walk him to unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2025.

While not the heftiest contract extension in terms of finances (it’s just a shade above the $775k new league minimum) this deal is a solid reward for a player who has quickly endeared himself to Canadiens fans over the course of the last two seasons. The 25-year-old is a 2016 sixth-round pick who spent three seasons developing with the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket, before making his NHL debut in 2021-22.

Despite compiling just 19 points in 107 games at the AHL level, Pezzetta managed to play 51 games with the Canadiens in the 2021-22 season, and this past year had his first campaign spent entirely at the NHL level.

While the former Sudbury Wolves captain has scored at a similarly low rate in the NHL (26 points in 114 games) and has averaged under nine minutes of nightly ice time across that span of games, he’s nonetheless managed to skate in head coach Martin St. Louis’ nightly lineup more often than not.

He’s earned his current role on the Canadiens on the back of his work ethic and energetic physical play. At this sort of price tag, it’s easy to see why Montreal would want to keep Pezzetta around to maintain the depth on their NHL roster.

Montreal Canadiens Sign Michael Pezzetta

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It’s been an impressive rise through the ranks for Michael Pezzetta, and today he was rewarded with a new one-year, one-way contract. The Montreal Canadiens have signed the depth forward for a $750K salary, avoiding any restricted free agent negotiations this summer.

Pezzetta, 24, was a sixth-round pick of the Canadiens in 2016 and spent several years playing limited minutes in the minor leagues, including time with the Maine Mariners of the ECHL. This season, he became a regular in the Montreal lineup and actually produced at a reasonable pace, scoring five goals and 11 points in 51 appearances.

He’ll never be known for his offense but Pezzetta adds a bit of fire and toughness to the Canadiens’ fourth line, as he racked up 156 hits and 81 penalty minutes in those 51 games. That included five fighting majors, easily the most on the club in 2021-22.

This deal will represent the first one-way contract of his career, and sets him up for a full-time role with the team next season. It will leave him as an RFA again in 2023, as long as he avoids Group VI UFA status by playing in a minimum of 29 games.

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