Don’t expect to see Alexander Zharovsky in a Canadiens uniform next season.
Canadiens president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton said Thursday that the plan is for the 19-year-old Russian winger to return to the KHL next season to fulfil the final year of his contract with Ufa Salavat Yulayev.
The Canadiens selected the 6-foot-2, 176-pound Zharovsky in the second round (34th overall) of last year’s NHL Draft. He was named the KHL’s top rookie this season after posting 16-26-42 totals in 59 games.
Zharovsky arrived in Montreal two weeks ago to train this summer with the Canadiens’ Ivan Demidov, a good friend who he grew up with in Russia.
“We expect him to play in Russia,” Gorton said when asked about the possibility of Zharovsky joining Demidov with the Canadiens next season. “He has another year in his contract, so we’ll leave that. I think it’s good for him.
The Canadiens selected 6-foot-2, 176-pound Alexander Zharovsky in the second round (34th overall) of last year’s NHL Draft. SOPA Images / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett
“He had a really good year,” Gorton added. “He’s in a good spot. He’s done really well. So this is just an opportunity (to train with Demidov). A year ahead we got him a visa and decided to get him over here and thought it would be good for him. It’s good to see him. He’s doing well and, obviously, he’s learning from somebody that has gone through it, so that’s helpful.”
The Canadiens selected Demidov in the first round (fifth overall) of the 2024 NHL Draft. He was named the KHL’s rookie of the year in 2024-25 after posting 19-30-49 totals in 65 games with St. Petersburg SKA. The Canadiens were able to get Demidov released from the final year of his KHL contract and he led all NHL rookies in scoring this season with 19-43-62 totals while playing in all 82 games.
Zharovsky was reported to be part of a trade the Canadiens came close to completing with the Toronto Maple Leafs ahead of this year’s March 6 NHL trade deadline. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed reports that the Canadiens would have sent Zharovsky, another prospect and two first-round picks to Toronto in exchange for Maple Leafs winger Matthew Knies. The 6-foot-3, 232 pound Knies had 23-43-66 totals in 79 games this season.
The Canadiens want to get bigger and tougher to play against and Knies would certainly help with that as a top-six forward.
When Gorton was asked if he had spoken with Zharovsky and/or his agent about his name being linked to a possible trade, the president of hockey operations said: “No, not really, because we’ve never said that he was involved in any kind of trade discussion, so we wouldn’t have to go talk to him about that. Hopefully he’s not reading any of the stuff you guys are writing.”
Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes said he was working on a “significant deal” that fell through just before the 3 p.m. NHL trade deadline on March 6. At the time Hughes said it was a deal that could be revisited in the summer.
“If I had to characterize it, I would say yes we definitely were close on a couple of things,” Gorton said Thursday when asked about the potential trade that fell through. “Maybe one more than the other. It didn’t happen. Have we gone back to that team and talked about it? Yes. But I’m here today saying we don’t have any deal.”
One player the Canadiens are trying to trade is Brendan Gallagher, who has one season left on his contract with a US$6.5 million salary-cap hit. The 34-year-old was made a healthy scratch for 16 of 19 playoff games and made it clear after the season ended that he wanted out of Montreal.
On Thursday, Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada made Gallagher a citizen of honour during a ceremony at City Hall.
“We continue to talk to Brendan,” Gorton said. “We’re pretty open with him and supportive and we’ll see what happens here. We’ve had private conversations with him about what he wants to do. We’ve talked to him about that and I’ll leave it there for now. And then if something evolves we’ll get to you on that.”
Gallagher has made it clear he’d like to play for the Vancouver Canucks after growing up in that city. His summer home is in Tsawwassen, B.C.
Gorton said he expects to make qualifying offers for all four Canadiens players who can become restricted free agents on July 1 — Kirby Dach, Zachary Bolduc, Arber Xhekaj and Joe Veleno.
“We’ve already had conversations with Arber himself when he left Montreal for the summer,” Gorton said. “I feel pretty confident that all our guys will continue to have good conversations. Right now it’s the draft. We’re kind of concentrating on that and then we’ll turn the page in a few days.”
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Gorton said he’s also continuing to talk with Michael Hage, selected by the Canadiens in the first round (21st overall) of the 2024 NHL Draft. Hage has already said he plans to return to the University of Michigan for a third year after posting 13-39-52 totals in 39 games this season.
“We’ve talked to Michael a lot,” Gorton said about the 20-year-old centre. “He’s told us that he would like to stay in school. We’ve kind of left it there. But we also told him to take some time. It’s a long summer. Things happen. Maybe we add people, maybe we don’t. Maybe there’s something that you see that changes your mind. Maybe something happens at Michigan that changes your mind. So we left it open.
“We’ll continue to talk to Michael, but we’re going to respect his opinion and if he wants to change that we’ll be open to that discussion,” Gorton added. “If he wants to stay there we’ll support him with that.”
Gorton was also asked about the possibility of selecting Maddox Dagenais of the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts with the 28th overall pick at Friday’s NHL Draft (7 p.m., Sportsnet, TVA Sports). The 6-foot-4, 196-pound centre is the son of former Canadiens forward Pierre Dagenais and had 30-32-62 totals in 62 games this season with the Remparts.
“It certainly doesn’t hurt,” Gorton said about Dagenais’s father having played for the Canadiens. “There’s always pedigree and you look at the player. When you break it down, you look at all the positives, negatives. I would say it’s always a positive if you had a dad who played in the league. And then it’s probably even a bonus that he would know a lot about Montreal as well.”