While other teams are adding pieces and paying dearly for them, Montreal Canadiens’ GM Kent Hughes is staying on the straight and narrow, content to re-sign his budding stars to team-friendly deals.
Yesterday, the Chicago Blackhawks signed veteran winger Patrick Kane to a 2-year deal with an $8 million cap hit. Before signing that deal, the American had signed three one-year contracts with the Detroit Red Wings, with cap hits of $2.75 M, $4 M, and $3 M. The amount of the deal surprised me.
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Granted, Chicago had the cap room to give him that kind of deal, but it could lead to a ripple effect across the league and in Kyle Davidson’s own team as well. When Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen, Ryan Donato and Jordan Greenway need a new deal, they’ll remember Davidson giving Kane $8 M after he put out seasons of 47, 59 and 57 points.
Grant McCagg made an interesting comparison on his Habscast podcast: by the 2027-2028 season, the Canadiens will have Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov and David Reinbacher for $42.1 million, who combined for 402 points last season. Meanwhile, Chicago will have only four players for that same amount of money: Connor Bedard, Patrick Kane, Bowen Byram and Frank Nazar. Their 2025-26 point output stood at 215 points.
Needless to say, the Canadiens are in much better financial shape than the Hawks are. Had the price tag been reasonable for Kane, since he has already made plenty of money over the course of his career, he could have been a good addition to the Canadiens’ top six, but not at that price. The Habs are building both a roster and a culture in which players must want to be part of something rather than be the thing to quote Hughes at Demidov’s new contract press conference.
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A 35-year-old who commands an $8 M cap hit might have helped the Canadiens in the now, but that’s not the only thing to consider. Hughes has always said that he won’t spend money to spend money, and he’s been true to his word so far. It will likely mean that the roster improvement will come from organic growth rather than outside help, but so far, that has paid off well for the Canadiens.
When the organization’s new regime came into place, they invested in a sports science and analytics department, they hired the best skills coach in the business in Adam Nicholas, they invested in helping their players improve, and we’re seeing dividends every year. Of course, coach Martin St-Louis is also part of the reason why his players can improve, but one fact remains: Geoff Molson wasn’t scared to invest in coaching and preparation, and it’s paying off. Suzuki has been on an incredible rise ever since he started in the NHL, Caufield’s become a much more complete player, Slafkovsky has shown and learned that he can be more than the supporting cast of the Suzuki-Caufield double act, Hutson has improved on a rookie season that was record-setting, and one has to wonder what Demidov’s sophomore season will look like.
Of course, eventually, Hughes will have to pay up if he wants to get outside help. Still, with his players’ meteoric rise, he can afford to wait until a few veteran contracts come off the books and he has a chance to see what the Canadiens really have in Michael Hage. From the outside, it looks like the Habs are out to prove that slow and steady wins the race, and they’re well on their way to doing that.
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