The Montreal Canadiens have not done much in free agency this summer, even with over $14 million in cap space. One of the reasons is that they have several restricted free agents that they will need to agree to new deals with, and if they bring all of them back, it will probably eat into close to all of that cap space.
Of the restricted free agents, Zachary Bolduc is likely to end up with the biggest contract, and the Canadiens should be looking at the recent contract Mavrik Bourque got with the Nashville Predators as a framework.
Bourque was traded by the Dallas Stars to the Predators earlier in the offseason and on Saturday agreed to a new five-year deal with an AAV of $5.5 million. This past season, Bourque had a career season with 20 goals and 21 assists
The Canadiens were hoping that Bolduc would have a similar type of season to the one Bourque had after they traded with the Blues for him last summer. However, he took a slight step backward and finished with only 12 goals and 18 assists.
Zachary Bolduc's playoff performance earned him his next contract with the Montreal Canadiens
In the playoffs, though, he looked like a completely different player and really showed why he is so valuable to Montreal. He not only had three goals and four assists in 19 games but also had 47 hits, which was second on the team behind Kaiden Guhle.
One of the interesting questions is whether or not the Canadiens will offer a long-term deal, like the one Bourque agreed to, or opt for a bridge deal that is two or three years. Bolduc's performance in the playoffs was great, but the Canadiens may want to see more of that in the regular season before committing to five or more seasons.
General manager Kent Hughes has put on a masterclass when it comes to extensions for players like Lane Hutson and recently Ivan Demidov. There is no reason to think he won't get it right with Bolduc, but after Mavrik Bourque's extension with Nashville, they have a starting point in discussions.
Add us as a preferred source on Google