Habs Relinquish Rights to Blake Biondi

August 15th is one of the signing deadlines for certain NHL prospects.  As it turns out, the Habs had one player who had to sign by then in Blake Biondi.  No contract was agreed on so the Canadiens have relinquished his rights.  He is no longer listed on Montreal’s Reserve List.

Biondi was a fourth-round pick by Montreal back in 2020, going 109th overall after spending most of that season at the high school level in Minnesota.  He made the jump to college right away and after a breakout sophomore year that saw him record 28 points in 42 games, it looked like the Habs might have a possible late-bloomer on their hands.

However, Biondi missed the back half of his junior year due to shoulder trouble, putting up just six points in 17 games overall.  While he rebounded somewhat last season, he still only managed 19 points in 34 contests, not good enough senior-year numbers to be signed.

Biondi is actually sticking around for a fifth ‘bonus’ graduate year after transferring to Notre Dame.  While that sometimes means the players’ rights with a team would extend for a year, that is evidently not the case here.

He becomes the second college prospect in recent weeks to be released as the team quietly parted ways with Rhett Pitlick last month after he deregistered from school.

One player speculated to have his rights relinquished today was Ty Smilanic.  However, he remains on Montreal’s reserve list (Reserve Lists were updated earlier in the day at 5:00 PM ET which was the signing deadline) so it appears that he remains property of the Canadiens for the time being.

In other prospect news Thursday, Austria released its roster for the upcoming Olympic Qualification Tournament.  Both David Reinbacher and Vincenz Rohrer will take part in the event.  Four teams in three separate brackets will each battle for one spot in the main event in 2026.  Austria is in a group with Slovakia, Hungary, and Kazakhstan.