Zachary Bolduc: A Proposed $42 Million Contract That Raises Questions

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Zachary Bolduc: A Proposed $42 Million Contract That Raises Questions
Credit: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

How many restricted free agents are still unsigned in the NHL?

According to PuckPedia, there are eight. According to CapWages, there are 17. But if you check Spotrac, the number is as high as 40 restricted free agents.

It's clear that some sites don't account for all the players in the minors.

On the Canadiens, Zachary Bolduc, Arber Xhekaj, and Sasha Pastujov are currently looking to sign a deal for next season. The other guys are already signed.

Pastujov won't be signing a big contract—we all know that. But he's not the one drawing attention, anyway.

The cases of Xhekaj and Bolduc are interesting. And they're interesting—as my colleague Maxime Truman mentioned to Alexandre Lanctôt (on Dans La Chambre)—because we don't know what role they'll play next season.

That's clearly a factor affecting the negotiations.

Xhekaj's situation is a bit less mysterious to me. He'll be either the sixth or seventh defenseman (if nothing changes) and will sign a low-cost contract for one or two years.

But Bolduc? He can play just as well in the top six (even if Martin St-Louis doesn't seem to have that in his plans) as he can on the fourth line. He could sign a short-term or long-term deal.

In fact, according to CapWages, which projects RFA contracts, Bolduc could earn $6.0632 million per season over the course of a seven-year deal.

That comes to over $42 million in total.

That said, when I look at other projections, I wonder what the site is basing its numbers on. And that doesn't make me want to rely on its projection system.

Why? Because Adam Fantilli is projected to earn just over $10 million per season… over eight years. And what about Cutter Gauthier? $8.8 million per season… for seven years!

(Credit: Cap Wages)

I'm not saying these guys can't sign at that price—even though I don't believe it at all. But if it happens, it won't be for seven or eight years: it'll be for barely a single season.

The landscape has changed with the contracts of Leo Carlsson (especially for Gauthier, clearly), Macklin Celebrini, and Connor Bedard.


In a nutshell

– Well done.

– Incredible.

– That's true.

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