Canadiens Sign Riley Kidney To Three-Year Entry-Level Contract

Per the contract terms released by the Montreal Canadiens, Kidney will earn $750,000 in 2022-23 and $775,000 from 2023 to 2025 at the NHL level, in addition to signing bonus payments of $92,500 each year. Kidney will make $80,000 per season at the AHL level.

Riley Kidney, 19, finished this past season seventh in QMJHL scoring with 100 points (30 goals, 70 assists) in 66 games for the Acadie-Bathurst Titan this season. He and fellow Montreal Canadiens prospect and QMJHLer Joshua Roy became the first Canadiens prospects duo to both finish with 100 points or more. Playing for the Sherbrooke Phoenix, scored 51 goals and 68 assists for 119 points in 66 games en route to the QMJHL scoring title.

Kidney has had quite the productive QMJHL career so far with 171 points (48 goals, 123 assists) in 158 games since 2019 with the Titan, who selected him 11th overall in the 2019 QMJHL Draft.

Kidney was drafted by the Canadiens in the second round (63rd overall), in the 2021 NHL Draft.

“Riley’s a very gifted player. He’s a second-round draft pick for a reason,” Titan coach Jason Clarke told MHN Montreal Canadiens reporter Marco D’Amico recently. “You could tell Riley has a lot of puck skills; he has the ability to be a game-changer and an impact player every time he was on the ice.”

According to Kidney’s linemate with the Titan, Bennet MacArthur, one of Kidney’s strengths that led to his breakthrough season is his puck possession skills.

“The way he can drag so many guys to him on the ice and then dish a puck through lanes is crazy sometimes,“ said MacArthur on Kidney’s play. “I try to get open in an area where I think he can get me the puck, and then, just like that, the puck is on my stick. He lugs the puck around with him and protects it, and that will serve him well at the next level.”