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With the Habs having a roster with multiple players on entry-level deals and a long-time stint in LTIR due to Carey Price’s contract, they’re getting used to having bonus overage penalties.  Next year’s penalty will be their biggest yet.

This season, they carried an overage penalty of $1,022,500, down compared to 2023-24’s $1,170,000 charge.  2025-26 will be considerably higher, however, checking in at a team-record $1,752,500.

How did they get here?  Let’s look at the numbers by position.

Class A Bonuses

These are the most common ones and vary by position.  The maximum achievable can vary depending on when the contract was signed while some players have the first ‘A’ bonus at the max rate and a second one at a lower rate.

For forwards, these are as follows:

  • Top six in ice time among forwards (total and/or per game) on the team (minimum 42 games)
  • 20 goals
  • 35 assists
  • 60 points
  • 73 points per game (minimum 42 games)
  • Top three in +/- among forwards on the team (minimum 42 games)
  • End-of-season All-Rookie Team
  • Selected to the NHL All-Star Game
  • NHL All-Star MVP

Juraj Slafkovsky was the only forward that Montreal used this season who had these bonuses.  Last season, he got there for goals (getting his 20th on the final day of the season) and ATOI.  This year, he didn’t get there for goals but was third in plus/minus among forwards and third in ATOI among forwards, earning $250,000 for each while missing on the other two he had in his contract.  For both categories, he trailed Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.  This was the final year of his entry-level deal so this won’t be a factor for Slafkovsky moving forward.

Now, let’s look at the bonus categories for defencemen:

  • Top four in ice time among defencemen (total and/or per game) on the team (minimum 42 games)
  • 10 goals
  • 25 assists
  • 35 points
  • 49 points per game (minimum 42 games)
  • Top three in +/- among defencemen on the team (minimum 42 games)
  • Top two among defencemen in blocked shots (minimum 42 games)
  • End-of-season All-Rookie Team
  • Selected to the NHL All-Star Game
  • NHL All-Star MVP

For the second year in a row, Montreal had two blueliners check off some boxes here.  The first is Lane Hutson who had three at $250,000 each in his deal and hit all three.  He got there for ATOI (22:44, 2nd), assists (60), and points (66).  He also would have reached on points per game (0.80) had he had a fourth in his deal.

Then there’s Kaiden Guhle.  He has two A bonuses in his deal totalling $420,000.  He got there for ATOI (21:11, 3rd) and plus/minus (+6, 1st).  Like Slafkovsky, this was the final year of his entry-level deal so he isn’t eligible for these bonuses moving forward.

If you’ve been doing the math up to this point, the achieved bonuses only add up to $1,670,000.  The rest fall under the ‘B’ bonus department.

These don’t have fixed criteria but in most instances, they’re based on games played or finishing at or near the top of the league in certain categories.  Slafkovsky had $2.5 million in these in his deal but didn’t finish near the top of the league in anything so he didn’t get any of these.

But two Habs did have small ones for games played.  Jayden Struble maxed out on his, earning $57,500 at I believe the 50-GP mark.  Meanwhile, Ivan Demidov received $25,000 for playing in five playoff games, making up the rest of the $1,752,500 bonus overage.

Joshua Roy and Owen Beck each had small ‘B’ bonuses as well for games played but didn’t play enough to reach them.

Looking Ahead

Even with two big bonus options coming off the books, next season projects to be an even bigger one from a spending perspective.

Demidov will have $1,000,000 in ‘A’ bonuses ($250,000 each) and another $1,000,000 in ‘B’ bonuses.  Considering that he projects to have a big role in 2025-26, there’s a good chance that some of those ‘A’ ones will be hit at least.

Oliver Kapanen also has three ‘A’ bonuses next season, checking in at $212,500 apiece.  It’s hard to see him maxing out on those but if he cracks a full-time lineup spot, he might be able to sneak one in.

On the back end, Hutson has a bonus cap in his contract of $1.1 million over the life of the deal.  Having reached $750,000 already, all that he’s allowed to hit next season is $350,000.  He only has to hit two ‘A’ bonus categories to max out there and as long as he stays healthy, there’s no reason to think he won’t do so.

David Reinbacher might also come into play as he has $1,000,000 in ‘A’ bonuses of his own.  If he makes Montreal’s roster on a full-time basis, he could reach one or two of the non-offensive ones as well.

The impact of these will largely be based on Montreal’s ability or lack thereof to move the final year of Carey Price’s contract once his signing bonus is paid on September 1st.  If they can do so, the Habs will be able to operate out of LTIR (barring significant in-season injuries), allowing them to bank in-season cap room and use that space to absorb some, if not all of next year’s bonus pool.  If they can’t move Price, we’ll have another one of these bonus overage breakdown pieces around this time next year.