Kirby Dach’s contract could be comparable to Alex Newhook’s

Since his arrival in Montreal, Alex Newhook has been discreet, very discreet indeed. If it wasn’t for the last sentence of his Instagram post, the forward hasn’t mentioned the Habs anywhere, and he hasn’t spoken to the media.

After all, the guy doesn’t have a contract, but his rights still belong to the Habs. It’s strange that we haven’t heard from him.

We know the former Avalanche forward is a restricted free agent. Kent Hughes is in no hurry in the matter, then. Remember that Kirby Dach, who was also acquired around the time of the draft, only came to an agreement with Montreal in September.

Newhook’s pact, on the other hand, is set to be signed much sooner. As my colleague Marc-Olivier Cook explained so well yesterday afternoon, an announcement is expected early this week.

But as for the details of the contract, we don’t know anything yet. At the moment, we can only speculate. Is it just the length of the pact that’s up for negotiation? Will he command a higher salary than Kirby Dach?

According to Marc Dumont, the two forwards’ contracts may be more similar than we think.

The last big issue facing the Montreal Canadiens is the Alex Newhook contract extension.

To get a better idea of how much he’ll end up costing the #GoHabsGo, we took a look at comparable contracts signed by players after their ELCs.

Here’s the lowdown:https://t.co/fePglx9yUd

– Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) July 9, 2023

At the end of their first NHL contract, Dach maintained a points-per-game average of 0.38 (59 points in 156 games). Newhook, meanwhile, maintained a points-per-game average of 0.42 (66 in 159 games). Very similar numbers, then.

What’s interesting about Dumont’s comparison is that the former Canadiens employee believes the pacts will be similar not in terms of duration or amount of money, but in terms of the contract’s percentage of the team’s payroll.

In his text, he showed a table that could serve as a comparison for Newhook. Here it is:

On the right-hand side of the table, we can see that the 10 players compared only take between three and 4.5% of their respective team’s payroll. Kirby Dach takes exactly 4%.

And as Dumont pointed out, all the above pacts are no longer than three years. In fact, only Roope Hintz, who probably has a tick more than all the others, signed for three years. However, Dach signed for four years, but we know how good his potential is, and at $3,362,500 per season, it’s a gamble that Kent Hughes saw fit to take.

For Newhook, therefore, a shorter term than Dach at a salary in the region of $3.1 million (around 3.7% of the Montreal payroll) is worth considering. So it wouldn’t be a superior contract to Dach after all.

In gusto

– The Stanley Cup is in Quebec.

– The same contract as Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Rem Pitlick.

General Manager Patrik Allvin announced today that the #Canucks have agreed to terms with forward Nils Höglander on a two-year contract with a $1.1M AAV. pic.twitter.com/jcHGYHkaJA

– Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) July 9, 2023

– A disappointing final year in Montreal?

The #GoHabsGo may not be wheeling and dealing this summer, but that’s all part of the bigger plan for the franchise.https://t.co/O5u22k6OgW

– Montreal Hockey Now (@MTLhockeynow) July 8, 2023

– Flyers reach agreement with Alexei Kolosov.

– Too bad.

Denis Shapovalov loses to Roman Safiullin👇https://t.co/tFaGC1Oslr pic.twitter.com/T4wL0tl0cK

– Radio-Canada Sports (@RC_Sports) July 9, 2023