HabsWorld.net --
After adding Chris Kreider on Saturday, the Habs have taken care of another piece of business. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Montreal has re-signed winger Zach Bolduc to a four-year deal worth $4.2 million. PuckPedia adds that the agreement breaks down as follows:
2026-27: $3.7 million salary, $500,000 signing bonus
2027-28: $3.7 million salary, $500,000 signing bonus
2028-29: $4.2 million salary
2029-30: $4.2 million salary
Notably, the contract only buys out Bolduc’s four remaining RFA-eligible seasons with no extra years of club control added on. Accordingly, he’s set to reach unrestricted free agency at 27 in 2030.
The Canadiens acquired Bolduc last summer in a one-for-one swap for defenceman Logan Mailloux. Both players were first-round picks in 2021, Bolduc going 17th and Mailloux 31st.
In his final season with St. Louis, Bolduc had a breakout second-half showing, pushing him to 19 goals and 17 assists on the campaign. The hope was that he could build off that performance in his first year with the Habs, giving them some needed secondary scoring.
He got off to a nice start, scoring in his first three games, providing some early optimism that they had picked up another core piece. However, Bolduc had two significant droughts, including a 31-game stint without scoring. The end result was him spending a lot of time in the bottom six, including time on the fourth line.
As a result, Bolduc’s overall offensive numbers took a step back, as he dipped to 12 goals and 18 assists in 78 games, being healthy-scratched a handful of times. He was a regular in the playoffs, however, picking up seven points in Montreal’s 19 contests while bringing some physicality to the table.
While this price tag is on the high side for the year he just had, it also factors in his final season in St. Louis when he nearly scored 20 goals. The price of bridge deals have gone up considerably and a two-year pact likely would have been in the $3.75MM range or so. Bolduc then would have had arbitration rights and likely would have pushed the price tag higher.
Accordingly, by going this route, they’re paying a bit more now for a better rate down the road. The downside is that he now has a shot to hit the open market in his prime. Generally, teams try to either add or subtract one year in situations like this but they weren’t able to agree on the money to make it work here.
With the signing, Arber Xhekaj is Montreal’s lone remaining restricted free agent to re-sign. They have around $4.2 million in cap room at the moment, per PuckPedia, though that figure includes a third goalie on the roster. If they don’t do that, their cap room will be a little more than $5 million. That should be enough to easily re-sign Xhekaj and allow them to enter the season with some wiggle room under the cap, permitting them to bank some in-season flexibility. And if they don’t use that flexibility, it’ll be applied against the bonuses that will be reached by Kreider, Ivan Demidov, plus others on their entry-level deals.
