Jun 28, 2021; Tampa, Florida, USA; Montreal Canadiens Nick Suzuki. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The Montreal Canadiens, more than any other team, can understand the risk involved with allowing a young player to become a restricted free agent.
Teams do it every year, and usually there are more than a handful of young players without contracts as training camp approaches. Right now, Elias Pettersson, Brady Tkachuk, Quinn Hughes, Kirill Kaprizov and Rasmus Dahlin, among others, are still without a contract for the upcoming season.
The risk involved in not signing these players early is the chance of them being presented with an unsavoury offer sheet from another team.