On April 15, 2018, Chris Terry faced up to the Laval media on locker clearout day.

The Rocket’s alternate captain could not have done much more for the team during it’s inaugural season.

He claimed the John B. Sollenberger trophy (AHL leading regular season scorer), won one AHL Player of the Month award, made another AHL All-Star Classic appearance, and was named to the AHL First All-Star Team.

He outscored the next closest Laval skater by 19 points and was the main reason Montreal’s affiliate were able to put together 24 wins despite being utterly hapless defensively.

Seventy points in sixty games would be an incredible effort for a player on the league’s top team, let alone one that was rooted to the bottom of the AHL’s standings with a 0.382 points percentage.

Tied for the league lead in goals, Terry was ranked sixth in ES primary points (17 goals – 15 assists) and second in power play points with 25 of those 32 points primary markers including fourteen goals.

It came somewhat as a surprise then when Terry confirmed to the waiting media that Montreal had decided not to offer the free agent a new contract and that he was taking time to weigh up his options.

So what then was the problem.
A bad character in the dressing room or not buying in to the coaching?

Not so much as the talented left winger backed his coach to the hilt (Sylvain Lefebvre would eventually be fired by Montreal shortly after the season finished) and was named Laval’s winner of the IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year award for his outstanding contributions to the local community during the 2017-18 season.

Per Laval Rocket:
‘Terry launched the “Chris ALS All-star” program. He has chosen to give tickets to each of the Rocket’s home games to someone living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), providing them with the opportunity to visit the Place Bell and meet him in person after the game. An important partnership between the Rocket and ALS Quebec emerged from this commitment.

On their own, Terry along with Matt Taormina and other team-mates surprised some less fortunate families at a Laval community centre to distribute gifts to children and their parents just a few days before Christmas. When there was an opportunity to get involved, Chris was ready to help. He also participated in minor hockey clinics and visited Laval’s regional hospital with Taormina, and fellow team-mates David Broll and Brett Lernout.’

A veteran of 500 AHL games in which the Brampton native has produced 440 points (183G-257A) Terry should not be short of offers from North America and Europe.

Selected 132nd overall by Carolina Hurricanes in 2007, Terry has accumulated 38 points in 152 NHL games.

At 29 years of age he’s hardly over the hill and is performing as well at this juncture of his career as at any point before.

It’s certainly possible a team like the Hershey Bears (ultimately their own masters despite affiliation with Washington) might be tempted to offer Terry a huge AHL contract after failing to make the playoffs this past season and not having won a championship since 2010.

Much will depend on the forward’s future hockey ambition but it appears from the outside a ludicrous decision from the Montreal organisation to allow someone of Terry’s stature to walk away.

Even when rebuilding you still require experienced hands on decks to ease the passage for the younger players – The Toronto Marlies are an excellent example of just that.