“My goal is to win the Stanley Cup. Money comes second. What matters to me, first and foremost, is to win.”
• Read also: Canadian: Carey Price’s name officially on the long-term injured list
Kirby Dach may be only 21, but he’s neither naïve nor candid. He knows very well that, for the moment, the scent of the championship is far from the Habs locker room. That did not prevent him from agreeing on the terms of a four-season contract which will bring him a little over $3.3 million for each of them.
In doing so, he takes the risk of becoming a godsend for the Habs during the last two years of his contract. Especially since at the end of this contract, he will not yet be entitled to complete autonomy.
“I find that four years gives me more time to evolve and grow,” said the man Kent Hughes acquired in the last draft.
“It’s a great opportunity. The group of attackers and the direction the organization has taken since Martin (St-Louis) has been in charge, it’s very exciting. This kind of offensive freedom will go well with my game,” said the man who scored 26 points in 70 games last season in Chicago.
Price on the injured list
For the Canadian, in addition to the notion of the possible windfall, the four-year term will somewhat facilitate the gymnastics to which Hughes, like all other general managers, must submit year following year because of the constraints of the salary cap.
“We are trying to find solutions to manage the ceiling, first explained Hughes. If he had been offered a two-year contract, the amount would probably have been lower. On the other hand, the following amount would have been higher.
Speaking of gymnastics, Hughes has already had to do a contortion to get Dach’s contract below the salary cap. To do that, he had to place Carey Price’s name on the long-term injured list immediately, despite the original plan being to make the move early in the season.
“There is nothing new in Carey’s case. I did not obtain a new meeting with our doctors. However, as I mentioned when acquiring (Sean) Monahan, our reading is that his knee hasn’t responded well to treatment since the team’s long run in the playoffs (in 2021). And we don’t have the impression that, without another operation, that will change.
A transaction in the air
Even with Price’s name out of the equation, Hughes’ wiggle room under the cap is pretty tight. Moreover, the general manager of the Canadian has not hidden that, ideally, he would like to proceed with a transaction before the start of the next season.
“I will not trade a good player just to get rid of a contract. Ideally, we would do it for a defender or a choice”, he, however, took care to specify.
Moreover, it is in the hope of seeing this wish materialize that Hughes waited a few days before formalizing the agreement with Dach. Such a transaction would have possibly allowed him to postpone the registration of Price on the long-term injured list.
