Is the Canadiens team trapped by its many bargain contracts?

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Is the Canadiens team trapped by its many bargain contracts?
Credit: YouTube

Ivan Demidov and Jakub Dobes' contracts are interesting.

Right now, the Canadiens have nine players from their core (including Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson, Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, and Noah Dobson) under contract through at least 2030.

And they're all signed at a good price.

But now Martin Leclerc, in an article for Radio-Canada, has raised an interesting point: Is all of this going to blow up in Kent Hughes's face? That's an observation I was planning to make before Daniel Brière changed everything, by the way.

After all, at first glance, the Canadiens' salary structure is impressive. Kent Hughes manages to work his magic by keeping his players in town at a good price.

But at some point, you have to wonder if the Habs won't become prisoners of their own system.

Why? Because salaries have gotten so high that some players could end up making nearly double what the Canadiens' current core earns. Would that go over well in the locker room?

“Besides, the members of the Habs' young core probably didn't leave all those millions on the table in the hope of funding the signings of players who'll earn six, seven, or eight million more than they do per year. It would certainly create resentment if that ended up happening.” – Martin Leclerc

Kent Hughes must be aware that, by 2026, overly large contracts might not go over well. And one has to wonder if that's holding him back.

Whenever a player is linked to the Habs and has a big salary, the famous salary hierarchy (which is worth its weight in gold for the Habs—we all agree on that) comes up.

Take Jason Robertson, for example. As soon as rumors about the Habs started circulating and people realized what he was asking for, social media was flooded with comments like “that won't fly here.”

I'm certainly not saying the Habs should throw 15 or 18 million dollars at a player first thing tomorrow morning—after all, striking a balance is important. But I am saying that the Habs have one of the best salary structures in the NHL, yet they've also been the least active team over the past few weeks.

And this is despite Kent Hughes' desire to make moves.

It's up to you to see a connection—or not—in a National Hockey League where prices are skyrocketing and top players have more and more power in their hands.


In a nutshell

– Interesting.

– A story that's got people talking.

– Good question.

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