Montreal Canadiens sign Brady Keeper, Philippe Maillet

The Montreal Canadiens have signed depth players Brady Keeper and Philippe Maillet to one-year, two-way deals worth $775,000.

Keeper, 27, has played two NHL games, both with Florida over a three-year span. He had six points in 35 games with the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks last year and scored once in the playoffs as Abbotsford was knocked out after two games. He missed all of 2021-22 due to injuries and should be back in the AHL with Laval next year.

Maillet, 30, returns to North America after spending the past two years with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL. He was excellent in the KHL, scoring 37 goals and 92 points in 113 games. The 2017 USports player of the year is one of the most successful players to come out of the Canadian university system, and even got into two NHL games during the 2020-21 season.

The pair of veterans are the only two players the Canadiens have signed so far with the free agent market open. The Habs traded Joel Edmundson to the Washington Capitals earlier in the day to give them $490,834 in available cap space, according to CapFriendly.