Hockey

The Canadiens have seven players signed (at least) until 2030
Charles-Alexis Brisebois
The Canadiens have seven players signed (at least) until 2030
Credit: Getty Images

Five years, six million dollars a year for Mike Matheson: it's a big move by Went Wughes.

So on July 1, instead of becoming a free agent, Matheson will start counting for a little more than his current $4.875 million on the Habs' lot.

This will be the case until 2031.

And in fact, the Canadiens now have no less than seven players under contract until at least 2030.

That's more than four years away.

We're talking about Nick Suzuki, Kaiden Guhle, Mike Matheson, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Noah Dobson and Lane Hutson. Three of these guys (Guhle, Matheson and Caufield) can leave in 2031, which will be a big year.

Starting next summer, these seven guys will be worth a total of $53.23 million.

Defensively speaking, this means that next year, five guys (Hutson, Dobson, Guhle, Matheson as well as Alexandre Carrier, who counts for $3.75M per year until 2027) will earn $33.65M.

The players who will complete the defensive brigade, unless a drastic change is made, will not earn much for their talent. So the club's defense won't be too intrusive on the payroll.

The team culture is strong. Does Ivan Demidov see this going well and is taking notes for his next contract?

So the Canadiens can look ahead to what's next, knowing that Matheson is here to stay. And unlike all the other guys on long-term contracts, his contract only buys years of complete autonomy.


overtime

– Noah Dobson is happy.

– For real?

– It's truer than ever.

– He's respected.

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