Author: Dose

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Projections for Zachary Bolduc: less than $6M per year over the long term

With Lane Hutson’s contract in place, Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton have a much better idea of where they stand for the 2026-2027 season. After all, it’s a big chunk of the payroll that’s been stabilized, andit’s basically going to eat up the space that Patrik Laine could leave open on the payroll…There are a few players who could turn things around just a little bit (Arber Xhekaj and Kirby Dach could earn roughly the same salary next year), and the Habs know what they could be working with. According to CapWages, the Habs have close to $27 million invested in 17 guys for next season. That doesn’t include the guys at the end of their contracts: Laine, Dach, Veleno, Bolduc, Matheson and Xhekaj.

[content-ads]On the CapWages site, there’s also the option to project guys’ salaries… and it’s pretty interesting. You have to take some and leave some, of course, but I decided to check out this tool from one of the hockey world’s salary references. Here’s what it looks like if you check the “long-term” contract option

  • Laine: $6.05 M
  • Dach: $4 M
  • Bolduc: $5.74 million
  • Matheson: $7.02 M
  • Xhekaj: $1.92 M

Of course, the club’s package could be higher if we take away the unlikely $6 million for Patrik Laine – which reminds us that you have to take some and leave some, with such a system. We also wonder if the Habs are ready to give that much to Matheson (who doesn’t have to ask for that much, even if he deserves it) and how much Kirby Dach will still be around next year. But for me, the bit that interests me is the one on Bolduc. Seeing him projected at $5.74 million a year on a long-term contract – or $3.17 million a year if we’re talking about a bridge contract – is still interesting. After all, seeing the goal-scoring Québécois sign at roughly Kaiden Guhle’s salary would be a nice saving for the club’s management. But keep in mind that within a year, things can change 15,000 times over. The Québécois could simply switch to GO and claim $200, but he could also have the income of a guy who builds hotels in the blues… To be followed, then. [spacer title=’en rafale’]- Cayden Primeau will make his debut with the Maple Leafs tonight.

– New contract, same habits.

– Interesting.

– Obviously.

– #Culture #Argent

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Contract for Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes imminent, reports Elliotte Friedman

In recent weeks, the Canadiens were known to be working on new contracts for Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton, the club’s two hockey bosses. According to journalist Elliotte Friedman, the Canadiens are on the verge of signing a contract extension to keep them in town.

Since both men are at the end of their contracts and Geoff Molson has no reason to want to make a change, no one should be surprised by such news.The opposite would have been surprising, to tell the truth.[content-ads]Gorton has experience and is a prized executive throughout the NHL. And more and more, Hughes is being seen as a key negotiator for the Habs. Together, they’re building an important culture in town. Recently, they finalized the Lane Hutson deal. Clearly, it’s their turn to have greater job security going forward. And I think everyone feels it’s deserved. It’s good to see everything falling into place for the Canadiens. It seems like no one wants to leave and all contracts, both player and management, are falling into place easily.So much the better if everything’s going well for the Canadiens.[spacer title=’Overtime’]- Today’s practice is underway.

– Indeed.

– Attention interested parties.

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The Canadiens throw in the towel with a former second-round pick

Riley Kidney, for a time, was linked to Joshua Roy. Both young men were drafted in 2021 (second round for Kidney, fifth round for Roy) and both were playing in the QMJHL at the time. In 2022, both were on the Rocket’s roster during the playoff run, but Kidney didn’t play. Kidney didn’t play, however.In 2023, both players made their full-time debuts in Laval… and that’s when the biggest parting came between the two Flanelle prospects. Roy, though not the Habs’ favorite, played in Laval, but also in Montreal. However, Kidney was never seriously considered for a call-up, and in fact, with only 11 goals in two pro years between 2023 and 2025, he seemed closer to a move to the Mauricie than anything else. And now it’s official: the Rocket have traded Riley Kidney – and Darick Louis-Jean – to the Trois-Rivières Lions. Kidney hasn’t played a game with the Rocket this season.

[content-ads]As colleague Maxime Truman points out, it’s clear that Kidney is no longer exactly on the Habs’ radar for the rest of his pro career.

He’ll likely serve out the final year of his entry-level contract before leaving the organization next summer – if he isn’t traded before then, of course.

Remember, it was Marc Bergevin and Trevor Timmins who set their sights on the Maritime native. It’s not surprising to see the club move on, then,because no, we don’t see a scenario in which Kidney finds value in Trois-Rivières.Speaking of the Rocket, let’s not forget that defenseman Josiah Didier, a former Canadien pick in 2011, was recently awarded a professional tryout contract.

That was before the Marc Bergevin era.

[spacer title=’en rafale’]- It starts tonight at home.

– Wow.

– Well done.

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Eight flowers, seven pots: the Canadiens are on track, but…

The Canadiens kicked off their season last week with two wins in three games, all played on the road. Collecting four points out of a possible six in such circumstances deserves a star in the book. Sorry for those of you under 30 who don’t understand the reference…There are several things to encourage any self-respecting Habs fan.1. The Canadiens have scored 10 goals in three games, an average of 3.33 goals per game. To be successful in the NHL, you have to be able to score at least three goals per game. The Habs did just that last week.2. Jakub Dobes continued his excellent preseason performance (he didn’t allow a single goal). Dobes turned aside 30 of 31 shots (96.8%) against the Red Wings, marking the Habs’ first win of the season. At some point, Martin St-Louis and Éric Raymond will have to consider increasing his workload.3. Nick Suzuki has already collected five assists in three games. And he’s not even off to a good start, objectively speaking…4. Zachary Bolduc quickly made us forget Logan Mailloux by scoring three goals and getting an assist last week.

[content-ads]5. Tiny Cole Caufield and Brendan Gallagher each have three points in three games.6. Oliver Kapanen (two goals), Mike Matheson (two points), Kaiden Guhle and Juraj Slafkovsky are all playing great hockey so far this campaign.7. The team is holding its own and behaving like a champion team (Kaiden Guhle). The Canadiens won’t be intimidated again.8. After a difficult first two games in the face-off circle, Montreal’s centre-forwards bounced back to win 61.5% of face-offs on Saturday in Chicago. Since the start of the season, the team’s efficiency in this area is 48.3%, approaching 50% [content-ads]However, not everything is rosy for the Habs, despite the fact that many fans are unable to hear anything negative about their team.1. The Habs were unable to get off to a good start in any of their three games. Against the Maple Leafs, it allowed a goal after just 60 seconds. In Detroit, Dylan Larkin scored the game’s first goal with less than four minutes to play. In Chicago, he was unable to register more than eight shots on goal in the first period, despite four powerplays. #Martin St-Louis will have to find a way to motivate his troops so that they are ready to play from the first whistle.2. The line formed by Josh Anderson, Jake Evans and Patrik Laine doesn’t provoke anything (positive). Anderson, Evans and Laine are the only three players on the team not to have picked up a single point last week. Since he’s only used for a few seconds on the second powerplay wave, Laineis hurting more than he’s helping right now. Has Martin St-Louis started thinking seriously about replacing him with Joe Veleno?3. Ivan Demidov doesn’t shine much alongside Oliver Kapanen and Alex Newhook at five-on-five or on the second power play. Who should Martin St-Louis pair him with to make him shine more and be more useful to the team?4. Lane Hutson may have been – along with Arber Xhekaj – the Habs’ worst defenseman last week. Let’s hope his new contract will allow him to be less distracted and more focused on his game on the ice [content-ads]5. Samuel Montembeault wasn’t bad last week, but he wasn’t very good either. I can’t wait to see if he gets all three starts this week, knowing that Dobes is doing well, but that there are no two games in two nights before the end of the month.6. Montreal’s power play is 80% efficient, its penalty kill 20%. Games are often played on special units, and the Habs will have to improve both aspects of the game in order to be over 100% when combining the two.7. The Habs averaged only 25 shots on goal per game. Only the Canucks, Flames, Sharks, Flyers, Lightning and Blackhawks took fewer shots than the Habs (per game) last week. TheCanadiens are currently on track, but they’ll have to make sure they stay there. An NHL season is a marathon, not a sprint!spacer title=’Prolongation’] The Habs don’t have a particularly tough week ahead, with three home games: tonight against the Kraken, Thursday against the Predators and Saturday against the Rangers. The Sabres visit next Monday, before the team heads west, and there’s a chance to pick up three wins before flying to Alberta. Go Habs Go!

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Lane Hutson: $1 million more a year in his pocket than Luke Hughes

The Canadiens signed Lane Hutson for $70.8 million U.S. over eight years (2026 to 2034), which means the youngster is theoretically going nowhere in the medium or even long term. And that makes everyone in Montreal happy. In the short term, he couldn’t leave. And even worse: he wouldn’t even have been eligible for arbitration or an offer sheet in 2026, if he didn’t have a contract by then. He didn’t have a lot of negotiating leverage (so he couldn’t be compared to Noah Dobson, for example)… apart from his talent. And in fact, his talent is so obvious that he signed a historic deal for a player in his position while leaving money on the table in the process.

He’s that good, the youngster.But despite all that, you have to keep in mind that the negotiations were tough and his agents still pushed for more money – whether he spends it in his lifetime or not.

[content-ads]In concrete terms, the defenseman’s representatives took advantage of the fact that Hutson is American to use Canada’s retirement compensation arrangement for foreigners.

Renaud Lavoie had this to say on the radio (BPM Sports) this morning: if he’d been a Canadiens instead of an American, Hutson might have earned more money to put in his pocket.

The journalist talked about this in Le Club du Matin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCMI3uz-KBY [content-ads]In reality, NHL players look at how much money they can put in their pockets, and not necessarily the cap hit of the contract alone. That’s where taxes and things like the Retirement Compensation Arrangement come into play. And that’s where Hutson comes out on top.

Lane Hutson, at least next season at his average salary, will have a million dollars more in his pocket than Luke Hughes. Why? Because Luke Hughes is an American who plays in a highly-taxed American state.

–

Renaud Lavoie

Because of the retirement agreement that will allow him to save on taxes when he retires, Hutson will maximize his contract en masse. Renaud Lavoie is talking about a contract, before taxes, that will bring him the equivalent of $80 million U.S. Hutson had no leverage in the negotiations and he gets away with it.Jeff Gorton knew what he was talking about when he said that the Habs knew how to get around the tax, so…[spacer title=’prolongation’]It’s a win-win for the Canadiens and a win-win for the defenseman.All’s well that ends well, then? They lived happily ever after and won numerous Stanley Cups?

(Credit: Hockey DB)

Kent Hughes refused to say yesterday whether this was a discount or not for his player, given the changing market. The increase in the cap changes the benchmarks we had for salaries,but in reality, everyone has put water in their wine to come to an agreement. I don’t see one group, in the Hutson contract situation, drinking water and the other drinking wine. #FindingTheRightMiddle

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“Matvei Michkov arrived at the camp in poor physical condition”

Matvei Michkov is not off to a great start in Philadelphia. The Russian winger, in his second NHL season, hasn’t picked up a single point in three games.It’s still a very small sample size, of course, but he was blanked from the scoresheet again tonight despite scoring five goals for his team.

That said, earlier today, Michkov’s case was the talk of Spittin’ Chiclets, as the podcast hosts discussed his slow start to the season…And from what they heard, it might be a little more than just bad luck:

[Matvei Michkov] arrived at camp in poor physical shape.

–

Ryan Whitney and Paul Bissonnette

[content-ads]Obviously, this isn’t exactly a good sign if it’s really the case.Rick Tocchet, Mishkov’s coach, noted that the Russian injured his ankle this summer, which affected his summer preparation. But Tocchet insists that Mishkov is fully healthy at the moment.

We wonder if this injury is linked to the car accident Michkov was involved in over the summer. We know the whole thing had many people worried across the league (especially in Philadelphia), but we’ve never heard of an injury since then.Even if, in reality, we know it’s a possibility. That said, it’s peculiar that Tocchet is only revealing all this now.In any case, then, we’ll have to see whether Michkov will be able to catch up with the rest of the group. Because what’s clear is that he didn’t make it to camp 100%, whether through injury or not.You’re free to believe whatever version you want.[spacer title=’Overtime’]- What do you think? https://youtube.com/shorts/NI3oOnFxNCM?si=jX8rST2pCyr-Gk9m – Good point, hehe.

– Nice read on Michael Hage.

– Keep an eye on

– Alex Tuch doesn’t want to leave Buffalo.

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Lane Hutson signed the biggest contract in history for a player in his position

In the eyes of many, the signing of Lane Hutson today represents a (very) good move for the Habs. The club has secured the services of one of the best defensemen in the league until 2034, and will be paying him less than $9 million a year in a market where the salary cap is exploding.On many levels, then, it makes sense to be excited about all this in Montreal.And as we know, the defenseman left money on the table. It’s part of the culture in town, as his agent explains, and we know he turned down a more lucrative offer from the Habs. But in reality, it’s still a nice chunk of change for the defenseman. And even though he signed on the cheap, you have to be careful before calling it a steal, because as Nicolas Cloutier(TVA Sports) notes, it’s still a record contract for a player in the defenseman’s situation.

[content-ads]It’s worth remembering that Hutson, unlike other young players, was going to become a 10.2(c) restricted free agent. Inconcrete terms, therefore, the Habs had all the leverage in the world. And it all had to do with the fact that the defenseman played fewer than 10 games in his first year in the NHL,so a $70.8 million contract is unheard of for a 10.2(c) player signing his second contract in the Bettman circuit. And in terms of signing bonuses, it’s even more spectacular: Hutson’s $55 million is 27.5 times more than Luke Hughes (who was in the same situation), who got only $2 million in signing bonuses.Usually, it’s very rare to see these players get big signing bonuses. Hutson’s $55 million isn’t exactly out of the ordinary… and that’s the advantage of having Geoff Molson as owner in town: he’s open to contracts like these, which owners generally don’t like (or can’t afford outright).So, in terms of cap hit (which is the important number for a fan), the contract looks like a bargain… and it would be dishonest to say otherwise. But even so, the defenseman’s agents made sure to get him a very attractive contract that, in reality, is a record contract for a player in the defenseman’s situation.Oh, and just like that, Ivan Demidov will also be in the same situation at the end of his current contract, hehe.[spacer title=’Overtime’]- Indeed. And for those wondering, he won’t be a 10.2(c) free agent next summer.

– Heavy defeat for the Blue Jays.

– Interesting.

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The habs core is signed up for the long term: everything is in place for success

With the long-term signing of Lane Hutson, the Canadiens are really starting to take shape for the next few years. Because in reality, there are several players who are still young and who will be with the team for a long time to come. And that bodes well.

Nick Suzuki (2030), Cole Caufield (2031), Kaiden Guhle (2031) Juraj Slafkovsky (2033), Noah Dobson (2033) and Lane Hutson (2034) form the Canadiens’ current core, and will do so for the next few seasons too. It’s interesting, because these players have proven their worth in Montreal. They still have a lot to give… and the Habs will be able to rely on these guys to win in the coming years. And that’s without counting Zachary Bolduc and Ivan Demidov, two guys who are likely to sign long-term too…

[content-ads] With players growing within the organization like Michael Hage, Alexander Zharovsky, Florian Xhekaj, LJ Mooney, Adam Engström, David Reinbacher and Jacob Fowler, it’s pretty easy to realize that the Canadiens could be armed to the teeth before too long.

And maybe that’s what makes Hutson think the Habs are so close to the Stanley Cup… Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton should get the credit they deserve here, too. The duo have made some good moves since taking over, and even if the last few years have been tougher on the ice due to the rebuild, it’s possible to believe that the future is really exciting in Montreal. It’s been a long time, at least, since we’ve seen that with the Canadiens. There are some good youngsters in place, and others will be arriving at a certain point… and it will be really interesting to see the results on the ice. It’s encouraging for the fans, at least. And if everything goes the right way, it’s true that the Canadiens could be dangerous for a long, long time. [spacer title=’Overtime’] – Heineman’s first goal with the Islanders.

– A returner. The Habs drafted him in 2011!

– Well done!

– Wonderful.

– Great read,

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Opening match: details of tomorrow night’s pre-match ceremony

The Canadiens’ home opener takes place tomorrow night. After three games on the road to kick off the season, the club will finally play its first game at the Bell Centre,against the Kraken, and, as always, there will be a pre-game ceremony. First of all, the ceremonies will start before 7 p.m., as we’ll be paying tribute to Ken Dryden, who passed away last month. But what’s also interesting is that the players will be introduced on the ice… with a song of their choice,so they’ve all had something to say about what’s going to happen tomorrow.

[content-ads]Note that this doesn’t mean that each player will have their own personalized goal song, as we see with other NHL teams. We won‘t beseeing a symphony orchestra on the ice, as was the case for last year’s opening game.What is clear, however, is that whatever song he chooses, Lane Hutson will get a ton of love when he’s introduced to the fans tomorrow night. The announcement of his new contract, a little over 24 hours before the opening game, is a winning recipe to ensure that he gets a huge ovation, andit’ssafe to assume that Ivan Demidov, who will be playing in his first opening game in town, will also get some of that love…. and one wonders if he’ll opt for a Céline Dion song, in tribute to the woman who announced his selection in the draft.In short, a great idea on the part of the Habs, who let the players live out their moment as they wished. I have a feeling it’ll please a lot of players… and fans, who’ll be able to dissect everyone’s choices, hehe.[spacer title=’Overtime’]- What do you think?

– Oh?

– It’s deserved.

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The Alouettes dominate the Rouge et Noir

The Alouettes aren’t taking any time off this Thanksgiving Monday. In front of a packed crowd at Percival-Molson Stadium, the Montrealers put on quite a show for their fans, winning 30-10 over their division rivals, the Ottawa Rouge et Noir. From the very first sequence, the tone was set. Québécois Marc-Antoine Dequoy blocked a kick and carried the ball into the end zone to open the scoring. As is often the case this season, Montreal’s defense set the pace, limiting Ottawa to a few scoreless plays and preventing them from crossing the 50-yard line for much of the first quarter, before kicker José Maltos added an impressive 53-yard field goal to make it 11-0. The defensive unit continued to dictate the tempo, with another big play by Dequoy resulting in a turnover at the goal gate, but the Rouge et Noir struck back early in the second quarter thanks to a 15-yard run by William Stanback, but the missed two-point conversion kept the Alouettes in front. Maltos then countered with another 48-yard field goal, before quarterback Davis Alexander connected on a long 47-yard pass to receiver Austin Mack to extend the lead to 21-9 before halftime. content-ads]In the second half, the Montreal defense continued its demolition job. Darnell Sankey and Nafees Murray each picked up an important quarterback sack, keeping Ottawa out of the pay zone. Maltos added two field goals to seal the win at 30-10. This victory confirms the Alouettes’ fine sequence, which seems to be reaching cruising speed as the playoffs approach. Their consistency, both on offense and defense, makes them a formidable and, above all, disciplined team. After Monday’s performance, Jason Maas could hardly ask for more from his squad. And with Alexander still unbeaten, confidence in the Montreal dressing room is as high as ever. But despite his team’s dominant performance and perfect record this season, Alexander was not satisfied after the game.

I played the worst game of my life.

–

Davis Alexander

A statement that speaks volumes about this group’s state of mind: even after a convincing victory, the Alouettes know they can give even more. And perhaps it’s this perfectionism that explains their good performance.