Canadiens Announce Dach Extension, Now Over Salary Cap

The Montreal Canadiens have now officially signed Kirby Dach to a four-year,$13.5M extension.

The Canadiens finally announced the four-year deal worth $3.3625M per annum, meaning that Dach is free to join the Montreal Canadiens for training camp in a few weeks. There had been rumblings across the league from NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman that the deal was imminent, but that Montreal was looking to make some other moves before finalizing the trade. The Canadiens signed the youngster to a fair deal in the short-term, as the $3M is the going rate for third-line centres in the league. However, the Canadiens likely feel that, if they succeed in optimizing Dach’s game, that he could be worth much more than his contract in the very near future and thus took the gamble on a four-year term.

Dach, a former 3rd overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, is a 6’4, smooth-skating centerman that can line up perfectly behind Nick Suzuki. The 21-year-old didn’t have the best season with the Blackhawks last year, putting up 26 points in 70 games, but the feeling is that he simply needed a change of scenery as Chicago committed to tearing it all down. His rare combination of size and skating make him likely to have an impact on the Canadiens; who were on the smaller side up until the 2022 NHL Draft. In conjunction with the drafting of Juraj Slafkovsky, the Montreal Canadiens have given their top-6 a big boost at forward, with two speedy forwards with size that like to crash the net.

Another Move To Come?

Kirby Dach‘s deal had been on hold for a little bit due to the intricacies of the Canadiens’ salary Cap situation. His current cap hit of $3.3625M makes it so that the Canadiens are able to fit him under their current cap structure for now, but they must either place a player on Long-Term Injury Reserve (LTIR), unless they maintain Sean Monahan or Jonathan Drouin on LTIR, or make a trade before 5 pm today to become Cap compliant again, as Carey Price hasn’t yet been officially put on LTIR.

It would not be surprising to see the Montreal Canadiens attempt to move a forward before the start of the NHL season, as the Canadiens currently have 15 forwards on the roster, and that doesn’t yet include Dach. Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes recently expressed a desire to continue tweaking his roster, specifically as he looks to add another defenseman to his group.

The Canadiens have agreed to terms on a four-year contract (2022-23 to 2025-26) with forward Kirby Dach.#GoHabsGo https://t.co/L2BN8cz076

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) September 7, 2022