Canadiens sign Kirby Dach to four-year, $13.45M deal

After reports surfaced in recent days that the two sides were close, the Montreal Canadiens and Kirby Dach now officially have an agreement in place. The team announced a four-year contract worth a total of $13.45M, giving Dach a cap hit of $3.3625M through the 2025-26 season. Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports tweets the full breakdown:

• 2022-23: $2.5M
• 2023-24: $4.1M
• 2024-25: $2.85M
• 2025-26: $4.1M

A contract like this could be seen as a disappointment relative to his draft position but is also something of a surprising total for a player who has scored just 19 goals as a professional. Dach, 21, was the third overall pick in 2019 but has struggled to stay healthy and productive, reaching just 152 games played and 59 points so far. Those disappointing totals led to his jettison from the Chicago Blackhawks this summer, despite being young enough to potentially be part of their rebuild.

Notably, Dach is signing away four years of RFA status but will not be an unrestricted free agent at the deal’s expiry. He will be an arbitration-eligible player coming off a solid contract, meaning if he doesn’t progress over the next four years, there’s a chance the Canadiens could have to leave him unqualified, not wanting to risk an arbitration award.

Montreal is clearly betting that won’t be the case, signing up Dach to a relatively long-term deal in the hopes that he can unlock some of the potential that put him at the top of the draft. Kaapo Kakko, for instance, was selected just ahead of Dach and has nearly the same production. He settled for a two-year deal this summer with a cap hit of just $2.1M. The New York Rangers took on much less risk with their 2019 draft pick, though they are in a very different place in terms of a competitive window.

Dach has all the things that make scouts drool but hasn’t been able to put it all together. His size, skating ability, puck skills and positional versatility all should make him a perfect player for the Canadiens to build around – but to this point he has been so inconsistent it is not clear what they are even getting. In 70 games last year he generated just 116 shots on net, despite averaging more than 18 minutes a night. He lost nearly 70% of his 500+ faceoffs, took 19 minor penalties and scored just nine goals, even while having Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane as two of his three most common linemates. (Philipp Kurashev falls between the two.)

Frankly, it wasn’t a strong year for the former Saskatoon Blades star. With this new deal, the Canadiens are betting that they can turn around his floundering career by putting him in a better situation. Since the club is not expected to compete right away, it can afford to take risks like this on high-potential players. At some point, the Canadiens will have to turn the corner on their rebuild; Dach will need to improve by then or risk being left behind by the rest of the talented young players in the system.