Breaking News: The head coach of the Montreal canadiens has terminated his employment with the team today…..

Breaking News: The head coach of the Montreal canadiens has terminated his employment with the team today…..

The Canadiens had a busy day on Tuesday with the opening of free agency in the NHL.

The organization started off with a trade in the morning, acquiring forward Zachary Bolduc from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for defenseman Logan Mailloux. Then, the Club agreed to terms on one-year, one-way contracts with forward Samuel Blais and goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen before announcing one-year, two-way deals with forward Alex Belzile and defenseman Nate Clurman.

The team also said farewell to some of its unrestricted free agents who signed with other teams, with Joel Armia and Christian Dvorak inking one-year contracts with the Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers, respectively, while Michael Pezzetta signed with his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs for two years.

General manager Kent Hughes met the media in the early afternoon to discuss the opening of free agency, while Habs newcomers Bolduc and Blais also took questions from reporters via Zoom after joining the organization.

Here is a selection of quotes from their various press conferences.

We were interested in his potential, but also in his style of play. He is a good skater. We saw a big improvement this year in his physical game. Obviously, it’s important to us.

We lost a little bit of our forecheck with Heineman [traded]. There’s also his offensive potential. Throughout his amateur career, he was a very good offensive player.

He was a 16th-overall pick. Averaging 13 minutes of ice time per game, he almost scored 20 goals this year. It says a lot about his offensive talent.

For us, I think it was always more by the trade market, rather than in free agency, that we would address the center position. We haven’t done it yet. We’re ready to start the season as is, but at the same time, we’re going to keep working the phones.