Montreal Canadiens: Evgeni Dadonov Gets Contract, Despite His Play With Habs

The Montreal Canadiens took a low risk gamble on Evgeni Dadonov last offseason. They shipped out Shea Weber’s contract and got Dadonov in return.

The Russian winger had some seasons with decent production before joining the Canadiens, but he was coming off two somewhat disappointing season after signing a three year contract with the Ottawa Senators in 2020.

In what would become his only season in Ottawa, Dadonov didn’t really click and scored 13 goals and 20 points in 55 games. While that is basically a 20 goal pace, it was below what he had produced in the past. He was then shipped to the Vegas Golden Knights where he played one season and scored 20 goals and 43 points in 78 games.

The Canadiens added him and it seemed like they had a decent veteran who could turn into a trade chip at the deadline since he was in the final year of his contract. It did not really work out that way for the Canadiens. Dadonov appeared disinterested a lot of nights in Montreal and had just four goals and 18 points in 50 games as the trade deadline approached.

At 33 years old, many were starting to question if we were seeing the end of Dadonov’s days in the NHL. He was traded at the deadline to the Dallas Stars for another struggling winger in Denis Gurianov.

While the trade did not seem to have an impact on Gurianov, it certainly woke up Dadonov. In Dallas, he scored three goals and 15 points in 23 games and picked up ten points in 16 playoff games as well.

He played so well, that the Stars have decided to lock him up instead of allowing him to test the free agent market on the weekend. Dadonov signed a two-year contract extension with the Stars that comes with a cap hit of $2.5 million per season.

A contract extension seemed impossible when he was playing with the Canadiens. The fact he was able to not just get a contract offer, but a multi-year deal worth a total of $5 million shows just how much different he played after he was traded away by the Canadiens.

Gurianov, on the other hand, is extremely unlikely to receive a contract and will definitely not be getting a qualifying offer from the Canadiens.

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