Justin Barron signs two-year contract with the Habs

This morning, the Habs settled the matter of Arber Xhekaj. The defenseman, who was a restricted free agent, signed a two-year contract.

This meant that only Justin Barron was still an RFA with the Habs… and obviously, Kent Hughes decided to settle everything today.

The Tricolore has just announced that Justin Barron has signed a two-year contract at $1.15 million per year.

Canadiens agree to terms on two-season contract (2024-2025 to 2025-2026) with defenseman Justin Barron.

Press release ↓ #GoHabsGohttps://t.co/lQ41jpTteI

– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) July 30, 2024

In actual fact, colleague Maxime Truman was right this morning when he said that Barron’s pact was going to be very similar to the one signed by Xhekaj this morning. In both cases, we’re talking about two-year pacts with a difference of $150,000 per year.

We agree that they are similar.

This will be a big year for Barron, who will have to fight to prove he deserves his place in the NHL. The defenseman has been losing steam for a while now, and with guys like Logan Mailloux and David Reinbacher pushing forward, Barron will have to make himself indispensable.

Reinbacher may not be a threat this season (more unlikely, anyway)… but Mailloux will be.

That said, the fact that the Habs are giving Barron two years suggests that they still have faith in him. He’ll have to prove his worth in those two seasons, but the Habs didn’t just give him one year either.

And in a worst-case scenario, at $1.15 million, he’d be tradeable next summer.

In short, Kent Hughes got both his files off the table today. The question now is whether he’s settled everything to take a vacation… or whether he’ll now focus on a transaction (Patrik Laine, anyone?).

Extension

With the signings of Barron and Xhekaj, we now know that the Habs will have around $5.5 million under the salary cap without having to place Carey Price on the long-term injured list (the famous LTIR).

The salary picture, which was already becoming clearer this morning, is now more precise than ever.

After signing Barron for $1.15M & Xhekaj for $1.3M, #GoHabsGo have $5.5M Projected Cap Space with 23 active players (14F/7D/2G)

IR: Price, Harvey-Pinardhttps://t.co/CjwJzKQSZS

– PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) July 30, 2024