It took a while for the Habs to make a splash in terms of adding to their roster but they did so on Saturday. The team announced that they have signed winger Chris Kreider to a one-year contract.
The deal carries a base salary of $2.15 million, well below the $4 million he walked away from in Anaheim earlier this week. However, the deal also contains performance bonuses with early reporting pegging the potential value between $3 million and $3.25 million. Specifics on the bonus structure are not yet known but chances are that a good chunk of it will be games-played-based.
Kreider became a free agent when he accepted a mutual termination of his contract. With the Ducks needing salary cap space, teams were trying to squeeze an asset out of them to take on Kreider’s $6.5 million cap charge. Instead, they worked out this agreement that allowed Anaheim to just let him walk away without moving any other assets while Kreider would get a chance to pick where he wants to play next.
It’s not as if Kreider is coming off a bad year, either. He picked up 22 goals and 28 assists in 75 games with the Ducks while averaging over 17 minutes per game of ice time. That’s still legitimate second-line production. However, it’s worth noting that 17 of Kreider’s points came with the power play. Historically, he has been a high producer with the man advantage. But with Montreal’s top unit likely set for the upcoming season, it wouldn’t be shocking to see his output there drop, setting him up for a potentially lower point total overall.
Still, Kreider gives the Canadiens a capable second-line winger to play alongside Ivan Demidov. While he isn’t as physical as he once was, Kreider will make that line a little harder to play against. He also gives that line a consistent scoring touch as he has tallied at least 20 goals in each of the last eight seasons and 11 out of 12 overall. If the Habs are going to take that next step, they need some reliable secondary scoring and that should help on this front.
Of course, there is some history between Kreider and the Habs. Many fans remember him colliding with Carey Price in 2014, taking the star netminder out for the rest of the postseason, greatly affecting their chance to make the Stanley Cup Final. (Dustin Tokarski held his own in Price’s place but New York went on to win the series.)
That’s not the only history, however. Team president Jeff Gorton was with him with the Rangers and gave him the seven-year deal that he exited to become a free agent. Head coach Martin St. Louis briefly played with him when he was a Ranger. Meanwhile, Kreider and former Rangers trainer Jim Ramsay (who has that role with the Canadiens) were quite close so he’ll have a bit of familiarity coming to the organization.
Assuming that Zach Bolduc eventually signs, the Canadiens will have 13 forwards set to make the opening night roster. That’s not great news for prospects like Owen Beck or Florian Xhekaj while it will be harder for waiver-eligible newcomers like Brett Berard (who has also played with Kreider), Sasha Pastujov, or Samuel Poulin to sneak onto the roster.
With this signing, the Habs now have around $9 million in cap space. (PuckPedia has it at a little under $8 million but that’s with Berard and three goalies on the roster.) That should be enough to comfortably re-sign Bolduc and RFA defenceman Arber Xhekaj and still open the year with some wiggle room cap-wise.
But back to the bonuses. Kreider’s bonuses could cut into that spending room, just like Demidov’s (or Oliver Kapanen’s bonus money, for that matter). At this point, it’s now looking like a near certainty that the Canadiens will be carrying over a significant bonus overage penalty into the 2027-28 campaign. However, by getting a capable veteran like Kreider, that’s a price they’re clearly willing to pay.