Kirby Dach can no longer sign his qualifying offer

The hottest topic of the summer for the Canadiens is clearly the Kirby Dach situation.

I know, you'd like me to write about something else… that the hottest topic should have been the second-line center, the right-handed defenseman, or the much-sought-after physical winger, but you know as well as I do that this isn't the summer Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton will fill the remaining gaps needed to call themselves Stanley Cup contenders.

That's why, yes, the Kirby Dach situation is the hottest topic right now with the Habs.

At the end of June, Kirby Dach received a qualifying offer from the Canadiens—an offer that guaranteed him an annual salary of $4 million in the NHL, but just over $100,000 in the American Hockey League.

He didn't sign it, even going so far as to request arbitration.

The hearing will take place on July 30.

Generally, a player has until December 1 to accept his qualifying offer, but when he exercises his right to go to arbitration, the qualifying offer comes with a new, much sooner expiration date.

That deadline was yesterday at 5:00 p.m.

This means that Kirby Dach can no longer sign his two-part qualifying offer—a decision made by the Canadiens, as a reminder—and that he also cannot receive a hostile offer since he has requested arbitration.

The only options still on the table for Kirby Dach are the following: wait for the arbitrator's decision and accept it, OR negotiate another agreement before the arbitration hearing begins.

There are no others.