Canadiens: 3 Biggest Bargain Contracts On Habs Roster

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The Montreal Canadiens found themselves in a bit of a salary cap mess two years ago.

After a playoff run that concluded with a loss in the Stanley Cup Final, a couple of players were rewarded for their efforts in the postseason.

Joel Armia got a new four year contract extension with a cap hit of $3.4 million. Jake Evans was signed for three additional years with a cap hit of $1.7 million. David Savard was signed at a cap hit of $3.5 million for four years.

Add those to the hefty contract extension to Brendan Gallagher that kicked in at the same time for $6.5 million, as well as Carey Price and Shea Weber earning huge contracts, and the team had a difficult cap situation on their hands.

The fact Price and Weber were injured and placed on long-term injured reserve helped the Habs stay cap compliant, but it did not free up the entire situation. Trading away Jeff Petry, Joel Edmundson, Ben Chiarot and Weber’s contract in the meantime has given the Canadiens some much needed cap flexibility.

They still have a few overpaid players on the roster, but they have also added some bargain contracts recently. Any successful team is going to have a few players playing well above their cap hits. We saw that with the Vegas Golden Knights when Adin Hill helped lead them to a Stanley Cup championship with stellar play in goal while earning just over $2 million against the cap.

The Canadiens are not likely to be in the running for a Stanley Cup this season, but they do have a few bargain contracts that will help them on the ice in 2023-24. These players may continue to perform at a bargain rate for a couple of years, or could prove to be perfect trade bait because other teams can easily acquire them.

For the purpose of this exercise, we chose to ignore entry-level contracts as they could prove to be bargains, but they are also making the most money they are possibly eligible to receive at their current age, so it isn’t really a bargain.

Just for fun, let’s take a look at the three biggest bargains on the Canadiens roster in the 2023-24 season.

Kirby Dach

The Montreal Canadiens kind of surprisingly acquired Kirby Dach at the 2022 NHL Draft. No one really thought a 21 year old recent third overall pick would even be available, especially from a team that obviously knew they were so far from competing.

The Chicago Blackhawks were clearly locked in on Connor Bedard at the 2022 NHL Draft, even though he was not eligible for another year. They would finish with the league’s worst record in 2022-23 (as planned) and won the draft lottery and selected Bedard.

The Canadiens would have loved to have Bedard as well, but they were happy to land Dach who they quickly signed to a four-year contract with a cap hit of $3,362,500. It seemed perhaps a bit rich and risky at the time, which was just one year ago.

Dach was coming off a season where he had scored nine goals and 26 points in 70 games. He showed some offensive promise the previous season when he scored ten points but was limited to just 18 games. In his rookie season he put up 23 points in 64 contests. All together, he had 59 points in 152 career games which did not guarantee immediate success in Montreal.

Then, he showed up and looked like the big, smart, creative, puck carrying and playmaking center that he was heralded as when he was drafted. He set career highs easily with 14 goals and 38 points in just 58 games, and showed he could be a perfect first line winger with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield or he could be even better as a second line center that drives the play into the offensive zone on every shift.

His cap hit, and for three more seasons, is a huge bargain for the Habs and has the potential to just continue being a bigger bargain as he continues to develop and plays better.

Sean Monahan

Sean Monahan arrived in Montreal a year ago with one year left on his contract at a cap hit of $6.375 million. He had struggled in previous seasons and was not expected to live up to the expectations of a nearly $6.5 million contract.

He did his best though, and scored six goals and 17 points in 25 games. That had him on pace for 56 points over a full season, which may not have justified his salary, but would have come pretty darn close. Especially when you consider he was a great mentor and locker room presence for the many young players on the team, was trusted to take key faceoffs and play a leadership role on the team.

Monahan’s season ended months early as he just never recovered from a somewhat mysterious lower body injury. He was getting close to healthy late in the season but just never returned to the ice.

He did however, re-sign with the Canadiens shortly after the season ended. He signed a one-year contract with a couple of bonuses attached that are surely going to bring his cap hit up to $2 million.

While $6.375 would have been a bit too much for him last season, he was worth way more than $2 million. Had he stayed healthy longer and finished the season with close to the 56 points he was on pace for he would have signed a multi-year contract with a cap hit more than double what he is slated to make next season.

Having been healthy for months now, Monahan is in prime shape and could be even better than he was last season. If he can build off his initial campaign in Montreal and carve out a top six role, there is no reason he can’t keep scoring at a 25 goal and 55 point pace. If he does, he will be quite the bargain for the Canadiens this season.

Jordan Harris

Jordan Harris is a young defenseman with just 75 games of NHL experience under his belt, but he is no longer on his entry-level contract. When he left Northeastern University near the end of the 2021-22 NHL season, he was eligible to sign a two-year entry-level deal.

That is exactly what he did and he immediately burned the first year of it by appearing in 10 NHL games to close out that season. He played last season at the NHL level, scoring four goals and 17 points in 65 games.

It was not the offense from Harris that makes him valuable, though there is some of that to his game. Instead, it is what he does at the other end of the ice that is most valuable. He plays the game like a seasoned veteran, never too flashy but also never making big mistakes. He just takes care of business in the defensive zone, limits chances against and quickly moves the puck up ice to get it away from the Canadiens net.

Harris, as a rookie this season, took on a large penalty killing role and proved to be one of the Canadiens best at the role.

Jordan Harris, signed to a 2x$1.4M extension by MTL, is a young defenceman who had put up very strong results in a third-pairing role as a rookie, especially on the penalty kill. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/k3LCPdYNDT
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) February 10, 2023

Harris just turned 23 and signed a two-year contract extension late last season. That contract comes with a cap hit of $1.4 million which means he is barely earning more than he did on his entry-level deal.

For a player that showed some untapped offensive potential and tremendous defensive ability while reading the game and killing penalties like a ten-year veteran. He really has the potential to turn into a top-four minute munching defenseman who puts up some points, but just shuts things down defensively and moves the puck up to the forwards, allowing them to transition to offense in a hurry.

All that for less than one and a half million bucks makes Harris the biggest bargain on the Canadiens roster right now.

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