Kirby Dach: Three Factors That Will Give Him a Chance to Succeed in 2026–27

Félix Forget
Kirby Dach: Three Factors That Will Give Him a Chance to Succeed in 2026–27
Credit: On Thursday, Kirby Dach signed a one-year, $3.6 million contract with the Canadiens. He secured the one-part deal he wanted… even though he left $400,000 on the table in exchange. After all, he could have accepted his $4 million two-part qualifying offer, reasoning that he certainly wouldn’t be sent down to the AHL. But clearly, […]

On Thursday, Kirby Dach signed a one-year, $3.6 million contract with the Canadiens. He secured the one-part deal he wanted… even though he left $400,000 on the table in exchange.

After all, he could have accepted his $4 million two-part qualifying offer, reasoning that he certainly wouldn't be sent down to the AHL. But clearly, he didn't want to take that risk.

So as things stand, everything points to #77 being back in Montreal next season. And somewhat against all expectations, Dach is one of the summer's winners in the city.

As Arpon Basu pointed out in the Basu & Godin Notebook, there are two major factors working in Dach's favor next season. The main one is that the team hasn't added any reinforcements to its top-6 lineup.

We should therefore expect Dach to get his chance at training camp to earn a spot in the team's top six.

Of course, all of this is contingent on the Habs not acquiring a top-6 forward by the end of the summer. But increasingly, it seems unlikely that such a move will happen in the short term.

And that means Dach, along with Alex Newhook, Oliver Kapanen, Zachary Bolduc, and Jake Evans, will be competing for a spot on Ivan Demidov's line next year.

But beyond that, there are two other reasons to consider. Basu notes that Dach, for the first time in a long while, will start the season without having spent the past few months recovering from major knee surgery.

It's often difficult for a player to get back into the swing of things in the months following his return to play after such surgery. And this time, Dach won't have to go through that phase.

And the other factor, in fact, is simply that Dach will be under the pressure of his final year before becoming a free agent. He'll have to prove that he deserves another contract for next season, whether from the Habs or another team.

That doesn't mean these three reasons will guarantee that Dach will be successful. It just means he'll be in a position to succeed… but even then, it'll be up to him to take advantage of that opportunity—something he hasn't really been able to do in recent years.


In Brief

– Nicolas Deslauriers is enjoying his day with the Stanley Cup.

– That's right.

– What a story.

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