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It’s now impossible to talk about a buyout for Brendan Gallagher
Marc-Olivier Cook
It’s now impossible to talk about a buyout for Brendan Gallagher
Credit: Getty Images
Jasons of Brendan Gallagher.

At the beginning of the season, we were talking about him as a player who was no longer following. We were saying that seeing the Canadiens buy out his contract could be an option in June 2025 since Gallagher’s annual salary will go from $9 million to $6.5 million, then $4 million thereafter.

The cost of a potential buyout would be more affordable than before, and that’s starting this summer:

(Credit: CapWages)

But in fact, it’s now impossible to talk about a buyout for Brendan Gallagher.

And the reason is simple: even if he’s not always at 100%, he continues to help the Canadiens.

He plays an important role in the team’s successes because he shows up every night and sets an example on the ice. He even didn’t want to miss games after the death of his mother and the birth of his daughter…

He’s healthy and that helps, too. He even reached the 20-goal plateau this season, while at the beginning of the campaign, nobody saw him scoring that many goals.

We could even say that he’s relaunched his career…

Buying out Brendan Gallagher’s contract this summer would be disrespecting him.

Especially after the season he’s having right now.

Of course, it’s sure that he’s a bit overpaid for what he brings on the ice and that his contract ends only in the summer of 2027, but still: Gally has proven that he can be one of the important pieces of the team.

And with the young players coming, the Canadiens need to have this leader to lead the rest of the group.

A first since the 2014-2015 season…

The Canadiens had success during the 2014-2015 season.

Led by Michel Therrien behind the bench, the team finished the season with a nice harvest of 50 wins.

But that season also turns out to be the last season where the Canadiens had the luxury of being able to count on four 20-goal scorers.

We’re talking about…

  • Max Pacioretty (37 goals)
  • Tomas Plekanec (26 goals)
  • Brendan Gallagher (24 goals)
  • Alex Galchenyuk (20 goals)

It almost happened also during the 2018-2019 season.

Brendan Gallagher (33 goals), Max Domi (28 goals), and Tomas Tatar (25 goals) all reached the 20-goal plateau… and there were also Andrew Shaw (19 goals) and Jonathan Drouin (18 goals) who came close.

I’m talking about this statistic because the Canadiens have four 20-goal scorers this season.

It’s the first time it’s happened in 10 years and Brendan Gallagher is still one of the team’s top scorers:

  • Cole Caufield (36 goals)
  • Nick Suzuki (27 goals)
  • Patrik Laine (20 goals)
  • Brendan Gallagher (20 goals)
If someone had told me in September that the Canadiens would have four 20-goal scorers this season, I would have believed it.

But if someone had told me in September that the Canadiens would have four 20-goal scorers this season and that Brendan Gallagher would be one of them… I would have found it a bit ridiculous.

Yet, that’s exactly what happened.

And again, it’s special… because we all thought Gally was out of gas.


In overtime

– Oh!

– He’s having a good time.

– To follow.

– Wow!

– I love the answer.

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