Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
Kirby Dach‘s situation has just taken an important turn.
The Canadiens submitted a two-way qualifying offer to him, as you already knew, and time is running out in his case.
The offer was enough to raise eyebrows.
Dach would earn $4 million in the NHL, but just over $100,000 per year if he ended up in the American Hockey League.
Clearly, Kent Hughes wanted to protect himself in case Dach played so poorly, that he had to be assigned to the Laval Rocket.
Well, today we learned that it was indeed Kent Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens who made the deliberate decision to submit that type of offer. Wow!
The Canadiens deliberately chose to offer Kirby Dach a two-way contract
And this is where it gets interesting.
The collective bargaining agreement allowed both options.
Kent Hughes deliberately chose the two-way format, the one that offers the player less protection.
That says a lot about how the Canadiens currently view Dach, and it’s really not good news for his fans.
It’s sad to see such a dramatic decline in the way the organization views a player.
What’s more. If he truly believed in himself, he would sign it, confident that another team would claim him off waivers.
By hesitating, Kirby Dach is revealing a concern… the possibility of clearing waivers without any team stepping forward to claim him.
After recording 15 points in 37 games last season, it would be difficult to convince an arbitrator to award him a salary much higher than $4 million, so he is taking a certain risk, and clearly, he is not betting on himself.
Nothing guarantees that Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton still see Dach as part of their lineup for the 2027-28 season.
The real question goes beyond the salary: Will Dach still be wearing a Canadiens jersey in October?
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Kent Hughes’ deliberate contract decision on Kirby Dach says a lot
Will Kirby Dach Still Be Wearing a Canadiens Jersey in October?