David Pagnotta has reported <\/a> that the Canadiens top Kucherov’s preferred destinations, and Cooper hasn’t ruled out what happens down the road.<\/p>\nThe financial side is another story. According to Chris Johnston, Kucherov could seek a six-year contract worth $20 million annually. That’s a massive commitment.<\/p>\n
His current deal carries a $9.5 million cap hit through 2026-27. Without an extension, Kucherov could become an unrestricted free agent, making Cooper’s comments about his future interesting.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay has little reason to let speculation take over. The Lightning are 8-3-1, sit 10th in the NHL standings, and remain unbeaten at home through six games.<\/p>\n
Cooper isn’t trying to predict Kucherov’s future. He’s drawing a line between his star’s commitment this season and the decision he’ll eventually have the right to make.<\/p>\n
Gabby Shirley shared Cooper’s comments on X, including his message about Kucherov’s commitment and future.<\/p>\n
Cooper stressed that Kucherov remains committed to a group that loves him. He also acknowledged that Kucherov has earned the right to decide his future when the time comes.<\/p>\n
For now, Kucherov remains focused on Tampa Bay, and the Canadiens can stay interested without anything happening immediately.<\/p>\n
Previously on Montreal Hockey Fanatics<\/p>\n
POLL<\/p>\n
3 HOURS AGO|227 ANSWERS<\/p>\n
Jon Cooper sends a clear message about Nikita Kucherov amid Canadiens trade rumors<\/p>\n
Should the Canadiens pay Nikita Kucherov $20 million per year?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Photo credit: Screenshot Jon Cooper has made one thing clear: Nikita Kucherov is fully committed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5604,5,2086,264,21,5147,4,1335,92,34364],"class_list":["post-700310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal-canadiens","tag-canadiens","tag-david-pagnotta","tag-hockey","tag-jon-cooper","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-montrealcanadiens","tag-nhl","tag-nikita-kucherov","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-trade-request"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117537716723922980","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Tampa](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/691172.webp\" "\\"Tampa")
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