Canadiens’ Best Contracts for 2025-26

Context is key. It’s easy to look at the Montreal Canadiens’ salary-cap situation and fear the worst. At face value, as a mere wild-card team, they shouldn’t warrant having one of the highest payrolls in the NHL. Of course, there’s more than meets the eye, with:

• The Canadiens being an undeniable team on the rise
• Carey Price’s $10.5 million hit destined for long-term injured reserve
• One of the top, in-his-prime offensive defensemen in the game just joining the organization, accompanied by a huge contract
• How they’re making a point of locking up young stars early with long-term, rich deals

The Canadiens and general manager Kent Hughes seem to be taking the road less travelled here. They’re effectively paying big for the prime years of their top players instead of waiting to sign in-decline unrestricted free agents. Whether it’s because they’ve actively avoided going that route or free agents still don’t want to come, it’s undeniably working.

It’s in large part why they’re an aforementioned undeniable team on the rise, even as one of the youngest in the league… even if at least some of those deals looked far from bargains when they were initially signed. They’re poised to age like wine though, which is reflected on this list of the top non-entry-level Canadiens contracts heading into 2025-26:

5. Jakub Dobes ($965,000 cap hit)

If this were a list of the best contracts on the team, bar none, obviously several entry-level ones would make the list, ahead of goalie Jakub Dobes, who just signed his second professional contract. However, because the Canadiens are so young, legitimate bargain contracts that fit the criteria above are hard to find. So, Dobes sneaks in here at No. 5 after having served as a major catalyst to the Habs clinching their first playoff berth since 2021, albeit as a backup.

The Canadiens replaced the struggling Cayden Primeau by promoting Dobes from the American Hockey League last December. The results were immediate and impressive, as Dobes shut out the Stanley Cup-champion Florida Panthers in his debut and won his first five contests, staying unbeaten in regulation in his first six.

Now, Dobes still had zero leverage as a pending restricted free agent and still-largely unproven goalie. So, it’s hard to justifiably rank his new deal as a masterclass in negotiation on the part of Hughes. However, Dobes projects as a potential No. 1 goalie who can conceivably replace Sam Montembeault once the latter’s contract expires in 2027. It makes sense that the Canadiens would take the next few seasons to test out Dobes more and more in that regard to see if they can trust him… with the contract potentially turning into a huge win under those circumstances.

4. Alexandre Carrier ($3.75 million)

Another reason the Canadiens made the playoffs was the trade for Alexandre Carrier in December. He stabilized the right side on defense, whereas the departing Justin Barron had been seen as a liability there instead.

For a refresher, the Canadiens had been in the Eastern Conference basement on Dec. 2 with an 8-13-3 record. They proceeded to go 32-18-8 the rest of the way, with Carrier debuting with the team on Dec. 20 (Dobes on Dec. 28). While the Habs don’t make the playoffs without Dobes’ 7-4-3 record down the stretch, they certainly don’t without Carrier’s contributions as a defensively aware, mobile presence on the back end over his 51 appearances. As a veritable lock to stay with the Habs as a top-four defenseman up until his contract expires in 2027 (at least), his current $3.75 million cap hit is a steal.

3. Mike Matheson ($4.875 million)

Defenseman Mike Matheson is much less a lock to stay with the team. Part of that stems from the log jam on defense. Another big part of that is how, at just 32, when his contract expires next summer, he’ll have a lot to offer teams as a still-reasonably young offensive defenseman who scored 62 points in 2023-24. His production may have gotten halved this season, but that’s less to do with his capabilities and more with Lane Hutson, who cannibalized his power-play time and put together a historic 66-point rookie season (record-tying 60 assists) en route to winning the Calder Memorial Trophy.

If Matheson stays, he’ll inevitably play lower in the lineup to where he’s grown accustomed recently, especially with the acquisition of top-pairing-defenseman Noah Dobson. However, it’s not so much a question of whether he stays past his contract as much as it is a question of whether he even stays until the end of the year, as he makes for an attractive piece of trade bait, taking into account his incredibly cost-effective $4.875 million cap hit, for what he delivers.

Reports suggest Matheson and the Canadiens could work out an extension, because he clearly wants to stay as a native son. The Habs should want him to as well, based on his skill and veteran leadership, as their only defenseman currently over 30. Based on how much more money he can make on the open market though, it’s hard to see that happening.

2. Nick Suzuki ($7.875 million)

Not so long ago, Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic included Nick Suzuki on a list of the league’s worst contracts. To be fair, he included the caveat that he thought Suzuki’s inclusion could end up being a mistake in time. Three years later, Suzuki ranked just below Sidney Crosby ($8.7 million) by two points as the sixth-highest-scoring centre in the league, with the first point-per-game season of his career.