The Montreal Canadiens still have some business to take care of before the beginning of the 2022-23 season. There remains a vacancy on the bench since Luke Richardson left, and the team would like to move out a big contract.
Trading away a veteran that is making too much money is a difficult thing to pull off in the NHL these days. Even good players like Max Pacioretty and Oliver Bjorkstrand are getting traded for very little, or absolutely nothing, other than cap space for their previous team.
The Canadiens are quite close to the salary cap themselves, and still have contracts to sign with restricted free agents. There are only two RFAs remaining on the team, and Cayden Primeau will be with the Laval Rocket when the season begins so his cap hit won’t affect the Canadiens.
But Kirby Dach still needs to be signed. His cap hit is going to have a big impact on the Habs next steps financially. Right now, the Canadiens show about $250,000 in cap space but that will increase since it includes three goaltenders. Either Carey Price will be on LTIR and the team has tons of cap space, or Sam Montembeault will be placed on waivers and sent to the Rocket where his $1 million cap hit will be off the Canadiens NHL payroll.
Once Dach is signed, the Canadiens will have 14 players under contract and will likely send down either Juraj Slafkovsky or Michael Pezzetta, which will further increase their cap space. Once all the numbers are crunched, it is possible to fit Dach into the payroll without trading anyone off the roster if he signs for $2 million or less.
Which really begs the initial question, why hasn’t Dach signed with the team yet?
The third overall pick from the 2019 NHL Draft was acquired by the Canadiens three weeks ago. He is coming off a season where he scored nine goals and 26 points in 70 games. He was a high pick and has the potential to become an impact player, but he hasn’t really proven anything at the NHL level yet.
So, what is the holdup in contract talks? The Canadiens know exactly how much (or how little) cap space they have to get this deal done. There is no way they can sign him to long term deal with a larger cap hit like the Carolina Hurricanes just did with an unproven Jesperi Kotkaniemi. It just wouldn’t make sense to sign him long term and hope for the best.
There is no way of knowing exactly what is going on between the two sides in negotiations, or what is stopping them from already agreeing to a contract. There is still lots of time to come to terms on a deal, but if things don’t work out soon, we will be on the verge of training camp.
Dach has missed enough time in his career due to injuries and can’t afford to miss the start of training camp with his new team. Hopefully Dach isn’t looking for a Kotkaniemi type contract where he gets paid out before accomplishing much of anything in the NHL. If he is, the Canadiens can’t even fit that type of cap hit, and certainly can’t afford the risk associated with a deal like that.
Let’s hope the two sides can agree to a two-year contract with a cap hit of $2 million or less in the near future. You just don’t want to see negotiations taking place on the eve of training camp.
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