{"id":854517,"date":"2026-08-11T19:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/854517\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T19:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:38:14","slug":"ivan-demidov-jakub-dobes-extensions-highlight-quiet-montreal-canadiens-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/854517\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Demidov, Jakub Dobes extensions highlight quiet Montreal Canadiens offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Montreal Canadiens<\/a> are further along in their rebuild than even the most optimistic fans could have thought. <\/p>\n

Just two years removed from finishing last in the Atlantic Division for a third straight season, the Habs reached the Eastern Conference Final following a pair of seven-game series wins over the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> and Buffalo Sabres<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While they were eliminated in five by the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>, the Canadiens cemented their status as playoff contenders, led by the young core of Nick Suzuki<\/a>, Cole Caufield<\/a>, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov<\/a>, and Lane Hutson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During his tenure as general manager, Kent Hughes has made a yearly habit of making a big summer trade in support of the young core.<\/p>\n

After a first-round exit against the Washington Capitals<\/a> in 2024-25, the Canadiens made a blockbuster deal to acquire top-pairing defenceman Noah Dobson<\/a> from the New York Islanders<\/a> in exchange for two first-round picks and forward Emil Heineman<\/a>. Hughes also flipped defensive prospect Logan Mailloux<\/a> to the St. Louis Blues<\/a> in exchange for forward Zachary Bolduc<\/a>. Both Dobson and Bolduc were instrumental in the Canadiens\u2019 improvement from wild-card team to Atlantic Division contender.<\/p>\n

Two offseasons ago, Hughes swung a late August trade to acquire sniper Patrik Laine<\/a> to bolster his top six, and the power-play specialist was a big part of the club\u2019s late-season run to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Based on Hughes\u2019 track record, many fans expected the Canadiens to once again make an offseason splash to take the next competitive step. Instead, it has been a quiet offseason from the front office, with mostly internal business being addressed.<\/p>\n

The biggest move of the offseason was signing Demidov to an eight-year, $73.2 million contract extension<\/a> with an AAV of $9.15M. The 20-year-old winger scored 19 goals and 62 points in 82 games in his first full season in the NHL as he led all rookies in points and finished second in Calder Trophy voting. He added three goals and nine points in 19 playoff games.<\/p>\n

Hughes also locked up another key part of Montreal\u2019s playoff run, signing goaltender Jakub Dobes to a three-year extension<\/a> with a cap hit of $5.357 million. The 25-year-old netminder established himself as the No. 1 in the playoffs, posting a 2.66 goals-against average and .908 save percentage while starting all 19 postseason games.<\/p>\n

Restricted free agent Kirby Dach<\/a> also received a one-year, $3.6 million extension<\/a>, avoiding arbitration. <\/p>\n

The Canadiens also traded veteran forward Brendan Gallagher<\/a> to the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> for future considerations.<\/p>\n

A pair of key restricted free agents remain unsigned, as Bolduc and defenceman Arber Xhekaj<\/a> continue to negotiate new contracts for 2026-27.<\/p>\n

Ideally, Hughes\u2019 next big move would be acquiring a top-six forward to play on the second line alongside Demidov. Throughout the offseason, the Canadiens have been connected to forward Kirill Marchenko<\/a>, but there has reportedly been no action on that front since early in the summer. Montreal was also reportedly a suitor for former <\/a>Anaheim Ducks centre<\/a> Mason McTavish<\/a> before he was moved to the St. Louis Blues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the Canadiens have been quiet, it\u2019s not for lack of trying, as Hughes and president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton have said the team has been calling around, but will not be pressured into making a deal. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to make calculated decisions on things we\u2019re doing, and hopefully you\u2019ve seen that in the past since we\u2019ve been here and we\u2019re gonna continue doing that,\u201d Gorton said before the NHL Draft<\/a>. \u201cWould we like to improve our team? Yes. Are we active, calling everybody, talking, looking at different situations? Yes. But honestly, we don\u2019t feel the pressure from anywhere else to do anything that doesn\u2019t fit into what we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already tried to make trades that some people would\u2019ve said are overpayments, but it didn\u2019t work,\u201d Hughes said on July 1. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to leave the impression to our fan base that we\u2019re just going to keep drafting and drafting and drafting. We\u2019re going to do what we need to do to keep moving the needle forward,\u201d Hughes said after the March trade deadline<\/a>. \u201cBut by the same token, we\u2019re not going to transact for the sake of transacting so that everybody\u2019s happy in the moment, and then next year comes around and we are all scratching our heads as to why we did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens Offseason SigningsIvan Demidov: Eight Years, $73.2M – $9.15M AAVJakub Dobes: Three Years, $16,072,725M – $5,357,575 AAVKirby Dach: One Year, $3.6MBogdan Konyushkov: Two Years, $2.027M, $1.05M AAVReilly Walsh: One Year, $850K\u00a0Brett Berard: One Year, $850K\u00a0Ethan Samson: One Year, $850K\u00a0Samuel Poulin: One Year, $850K\u00a0Kaapo Kahkonen: One Year, $850K\u00a0Alex Belzile: One Year, $850K\u00a0Jared Davidson: One Year, $850K\u00a0Hunter McCown: One Year, $850K\u00a0Montreal Canadiens Offseason TradesTraded Brendan Gallagher to Vancouver Canucks for Future ConsiderationsAcquired Maksymilian Szuber from the Utah Mammoth for Joshua RoyAcquired Hunter McCown from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Luke TuchAcquired Brett Berard from the New York Rangers for William TrudeauAcquired Sasha Pastujov from the Anaheim Ducks for Sean Farrell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Montreal Canadiens are further along in their rebuild than even the most optimistic fans could have thought.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[712,49,48,78846,448,82],"class_list":["post-854517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal-canadiens-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-8","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}