Canadiens Almost Passed on Joe Veleno Before Kent Hughes Stepped In: Reason Revealed
Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
One of the underrated pleasant surprises of the Montreal Canadiens' 2025 training camp is center Joe Veleno.
He's having a very good camp, and some even see him ahead of Oliver Kapanen in the team's hierarchy for a spot in Martin St-Louis' regular lineup.
Kent Hughes made the right call in eventually giving him a one-year contract worth $900,000, after several weeks of seeing Veleno train in Brossard this summer with other Canadiens players.
However, it almost never happened.
Some Montreal Canadiens employees didn't want to sign Joe Veleno at first
That's what the site DansLesCoulisses reports, based on information shared by the excellent Tony Marinaro.
"Tony Marinaro explained what happened during his appearance on 98.5 FM: in fact, initially, the club had internal discussions about Veleno..
But at that time, there were more people who didn't want to sign him than people who did in the organization." - DLC
But at that time, there were more people who didn't want to sign him than people who did in the organization." - DLC
We highly recommend it.
Clearly, Kent Hughes explored other options before ultimately deciding to circle back to Veleno (despite opposition from several other Canadiens executives).. And so far, Veleno is proving Hughes right!
Veleno has accumulated 81 points in 306 career games, including 38 goals. He was a first-round pick (30th overall) by the Detroit Red Wings.
Can't wait to see what the future holds for him!
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