Kirby Dach Opens Up: ‘Ive Been Through A Lot’

Montreal Canadiens forward Kirby Dach showed some brutal honesty after the team held an intra-squad scrimmage at training camp on Thursday.

When asked what he’s learned from the ups and downs of his injury-plagued four seasons with Montreal Canadiens, a somewhat emotional Dach opened up to the assembled media scrum.

“I’d say a lot of resiliency,” Dach replied after pausing for a bit.

“And for me I’d say the biggest thing was not just throwing in the towel and waving the white flag. I’ve been through a lot personally the last couple of years and there’s been a lot of times where it was difficult; it was hard,” Dach said as his voice trembled a bit.

“But I have a great support staff. Great teammates, great trainers here. The coaching staff; management. …the list kind of goes on and those are the people that. …that helped me out the most and I definitely owe them a thank you for everything that they stuck by my side through it.”

Dach has only played in 154 of a possible 328 games since being traded by the Chicago Blackahawks to the Montreal Canadiens at the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. The Canadiens acquired the 13th pick overall from the New York Islanders in a trade for defenseman Alexander Romanov and the 98th overall pick at that draft. Montreal then turned around and traded the 13th overall pick and 66th overall pick. Since then, the third pick overall at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft has only 32 goals and 45 assists in 154 games.

After scoring just eight goals to go with seven assists in 37 games in the 2025-26 regular season, Kirby Dach did play an important role in the Canadiens’ surprising march to Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final with four goals and an assist in 19 Stanley Cup Playoffs  games. The Montreal Canadiens then submitted a two-way qualifying offer worth $4 million but Dach let the qualifying offer deadline pass and filed for salary arbitration. The 6-foot-4, 221-pound, 25-year-old forward and the team then agreed on a new one-year, $3.6 million one-way contract to avoid arbitration.

As prospects like Florian Xhekaj and Owen Beck have made themselves noticed at camp, Dach hasn’t exactly stood out. However, the embattled forward is keeping his head up and just trying to focus on himself.

“You just kind of focus on what’s being asked of you by the coaching staff, the details of the game and playing the game the right way,” Dach said. “You get rewarded eventually down the line if you continue to do the right things away from the puck, be responsible defensively and have good details all over the ice.”

Dach seems to realize that the expectations that he and so many in the NHL had for him might not have materialized, and might never but if he wants to stick with not just the Canadiens but in the NHL he has to find other ways to stick around.

“I think it’s just being a solid 200-foot responsible player and understanding that not every shift is going to be about creating offence,” Dach said. “Sometimes, you have to do the little things right to set up the next line to have success. For me, it’s just about putting shifts together and capitalizing when I do get my chances.”