Canadiens’ Best Contracts for 2026-27

While Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes has been largely silent on the free-agent front this summer, forward Kirby Dach’s arbitration hearing is scheduled for July 30. He remains one of a few restricted-free-agent Habs still needing contracts for next season (Zachary Bolduc, Arber Xhekaj).

So, technically, this list of the team’s best contracts for 2026-27 (excluding entry-level deals) can still change. However, based on sheer logic, with each of those above players still having a lot to prove, it’s unlikely fans will be blown away by whatever each of their deals end up looking like.

In comparison, the following five have already begun to demonstrate their worth to the organization, as evidenced by how the Canadiens effectively rushed to get their deals and negotiated early in each case:

Alexandre Texier ($2.5 million cap hit)

Just look at Alexandre Texier, who initially signed on for one year and $1 million in November (upon having his contract terminated by the St. Louis Blues) only to re-sign for two more less than two months later. Texier is actually very polarizing in that, when he signed his extension, he had been coming off an especially successful stretch, during which he scored three points in consecutive games and eight over four contests (before ending his 43 games with the Canadiens with 20 points), prompting cynics to argue Hughes committed too soon.

Any suggestion to that effect must be met with a loud guffaw, considering said commitment is only for two seasons and for a reasonable $2.5 million hit. Had Hughes really thought Texier was going to continue scoring at two-point-per-game pace, he certainly would have locked him up for longer. The fact is, everyone with brain waves understood Texier was the beneficiary of injuries at the time and resulting ice time with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. That includes Hughes.

It was never going to last. However, for a player who has proven capable of contributing up and down the lineup and scoring 30 points over a full season, the deal was (and is) 100% objectively a good one.

Juraj Slafkovsky ($7.6 million)

All things taken into account, Hughes was taking more of a risk re-signing Juraj Slafkovsky when he did (July 1, 2024), because, despite being a first-overall pick in 2022, the Slovak hadn’t really shown anything but potential of sustained success as a top-line player. He underwhelmed as a rookie and, while his 20-goal, 50-point sophomore effort in 2023-24 was a huge step in the right direction, the 51 points he followed that up with (after signing the extension) didn’t exactly reinforce the notion Slafkovsky would take another.

However, any doubters as to Slafkovsky’s ability were forced to eat humble pie this past year, the first of the deal. Slafkovsky, who is under contract until 2033 with a cap hit of $7.6 million, scored a career-high 30 goals and 73 points, further establishing himself as a top-line presence (while also playing a significant portion of the season away from Suzuki and Caufield).

With inflation in the years ahead, the cap hit would probably be considered good value if Slafkovsky stayed at around 50 points. If he can continue to produce at this next level he’s reached though, the contract will constitute highway robbery. And, oh, yeah, he’s only 22, meaning he realistically could level up again.

Cole Caufield ($7.85 million)

It’s understandable if you hesitate to put Caufield in the same stratosphere as Nathan MacKinnon ($12.604 million cap hit), the only other player to score 50 goals this past season, with the former becoming the first Habs player since Stephane Richer in 1990 to hit the milestone. However, look at Caufield’s entire career:

The 25-year-old has scored 169 goals in 368 games. That translates to an average of nearly 38 goals per 82 games, which still puts him in similar territory as wingers like Kyle Connor ($12 million), Martin Necas ($11.5 million) and Pavel Dorofeyeve ($11 million). The difference is Caufield, who scored at a point-per-game pace for the first time in his career, showing more than one dimension to his game, is younger than them all. He’s also much more affordable.

Lane Hutson ($8.85 million)

All on its own, defenseman Lane Hutson’s 2025 Calder Memorial Trophy wouldn’t justify his $8.85 million cap hit. That would be the wrong way to look at it. Instead, it’s his list of historic accolades from that season that won him the award and earned him the deal, especially seeing as it’s also a list to which he continues to add, having just tied Hockey Hall of Famer Larry Robinson’s single-season assists record (for a Canadiens defenseman) with 66.