The general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, Kent Hughes, has resolved an important issue for the Montreal Canadiens.
In recent days, in addition to signing his last restricted free agents (Justin Barron and Arber Xhekaj), he has obviously awarded a long-term contract to young defenseman Kaiden Guhle.
With the signing of Guhle, apart from obviously Ivan Demidov, the core of the Montreal Canadiens is practically entirely signed to long-term deals. That’s excellent.
And on top of that, he is signed at an extremely reasonable price!
Clearly, Kent Hughes’ past as a player agent gives him a huge advantage during contract negotiations, compared to a certain Marc Bergevin.
Kent Hughes gives a salary cap management lesson to other NHL GMs and has signed several very advantageous contracts
See his impressive summary.
«$35.14 million for the following players (6):
Juraj Slafkovsky
Nick Suzuki
Cole Caufield
Kirby Dach
Alex Newhook
Kaiden Guhle
Average of $5.86 million per year for the 6 players.
Only 40% of the total salary cap.»
It’s probably an overused term these days, but yes, it’s major for the Canadiens’ rebuild.
It will leave a lot of money for Kent Hughes to attempt one or two big moves in the free agent market.
Nowadays, having salary cap flexibility can really change everything.
«In comparison, the Maple Leafs’ quartet (Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and William Nylander) accounts for 53% of their organization’s salary cap. It should be noted that the Canadiens don’t rely on athletes of the caliber of Matthews, Marner, or even Nylander, which explains the lower salaries. There is still a considerable difference between the two situations.»
Additionally, it will leave plenty of money eventually for Ivan Demidov, Lane Hutson, and David Reinbacher, if they ever reach their full potential.
Having resolved all the contracts for Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook, and Kaiden Guhle, that’s quite a file sealed for the Canadiens’ general manager.
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