{"id":111512,"date":"2025-07-05T03:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T03:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/111512\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T03:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T03:33:12","slug":"canadiens-sign-sean-farrell-marc-del-gaizo-to-two-way-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/111512\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens Sign Sean Farrell, Marc Del Gaizo To Two-Way Contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Canadiens have re-signed RFA forward\u00a0Sean Farrell<\/a>\u00a0to a two-way contract and also added Group VI free agent defenseman\u00a0Marc Del Gaizo<\/a>\u00a0on a two-way deal, per a team announcement<\/a> yesterday. Both are one-year agreements.<\/p>\n

Farrell\u2019s deal pays him an NHL salary of $775K and an AHL salary of $90K with a $110K guarantee, per PuckPedia<\/a>. Del Gaizo\u2019s contract is far richer; PuckPedia<\/a> reflects he\u2019s landed an AHL salary of $375K with a $450K guarantee.<\/p>\n

Farrell, 23, was a fourth-round pick in 2020 out of the USHL\u2019s Chicago Steel. A high-scoring pivot who can flex to the left wing, his size was the main reason he slipped in the draft, checking in at just 5\u20199\u2033 and 174 lbs. He had an extremely productive two-year run at Harvard, including a spectacular 53-point sophomore season that earned him ECAC Player of the Year honors.<\/p>\n

Although Farrell had already represented the United States at multiple senior national tournaments and was coming off a spectacular collegiate season, he hasn\u2019t yet received an NHL opportunity since signing his entry-level contract with Montreal in 2023. In 114 games for AHL Laval over the past two seasons, he has 29 goals, 43 assists, and 72 points with a plus-eight rating.<\/p>\n

Farrell could have accepted his qualifying offer, which included a $874,125 NHL salary for 2025-26. That QO only included an $80K minors salary, though, so he\u2019ll take the higher guarantee in exchange for a lower salary if he ends up spending time on the NHL roster. He did break out for 20 goals in 67 games with Laval last year, so there is still a path for the undersized pivot to reach NHL minutes and see if he can convert his elite lower-level offensive production into big-league offense.<\/p>\n

Del Gaizo, 25, makes the move to Montreal after spending his first four full professional seasons in the Predators organization. He was a fourth-round pick by Nashville out of UMass in 2019 and has spent most of his time with AHL Milwaukee since turning pro in 2021, although he did spend a slight majority of last season on the NHL roster.<\/p>\n

After making his NHL debut in a nine-game call-up in 2023-24, Del Gaizo made 46 appearances for Nashville last year. He was serviceable in bottom-pairing minutes, recording nine points and a minus-three rating while averaging 16:45 per game. The 2021 NCAA championship winner also had an 8-4\u201312 scoring line with a +10 rating in 30 games with Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s likely worth a shot as someone\u2019s No. 7\/8 option, Del Gaizo wasn\u2019t going to get that in Nashville. The Preds were looking to get either bigger or younger on defense, and the 5\u201911\u201d lefty doesn\u2019t really fit either of those bills as he nears the precipice of his development.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll fight for a spot on Montreal\u2019s roster with names like unsigned RFA\u00a0Jayden Struble<\/a>, although if top prospect\u00a0David Reinbacher\u00a0earns a spot out of camp, that would presumably box Del Gaizo out of an NHL role with eight defenders ahead of him on the depth chart. Montreal still has 11 contract spots remaining and three unsigned RFAs in Struble,\u00a0Jakub Dobes<\/a>, and\u00a0Willliam Trudeau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canadiens have re-signed RFA forward\u00a0Sean Farrell\u00a0to a two-way contract and also added Group VI free agent defenseman\u00a0Marc…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,6884,264,21,5147,4,4500,405],"class_list":{"0":"post-111512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-marc-del-gaizo","11":"tag-montreal","12":"tag-montreal-canadiens","13":"tag-montrealcanadiens","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-sean-farrell","16":"tag-transactions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114798526757070709","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}