Canadiens: About the Guhle Contract...
A third contract in two days for the Montreal Canadiens blueliners and GM Kent Hughes is batting 1.000 and knocking them out of the ballpark.
© Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports - Canadiens: About the Guhle Contract...One has to wonder if Kent Hughes has just come back from a well-deserved holiday. After the draft, the free agency and the Juraj Slafkovsky contract extension, things got eerily quiet for the Montreal Canadiens. In the last two days though, the signings have been coming in fast and furious, as if the GM decided it was time to sort out all of his outstanding business.
A day after signing new two-year deals with Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron, Hughes signed the teams' first round pick at the 2020 draft Kaiden Guhle to a six-year contract extension. His deal will therefore run out on the same year as Cole Caufield's will.
The pact is worth $33.3 M and has an annual average value of $5.55 M and it fits very well with the salary structure Kent Hughes has started to put in place on his blueline. For now, Kaiden Guhle is his top young defenseman, but he may not be for very long. He's been playing top-pairing minutes and doing everything that was asked of him during his first two seasons. However, he may not stay on the top-pairing once the next crop of blueliners graduates.
By keeping Xhekaj, Barron and Guhle's AAV down to a reasonable number, Hughes gives himself some room to play with when he has to sign the likes of Lane Hutson and David Reinbacher to their second contract. If you look across the NHL, Brock Fabber has recently signed an eight-year deal with the Minnesota Wild but has an AAV of $8.5M. The difference being the Minnesota outfit expects him to remain on their first-pairing. For Guhle that's not a certainty.
The deal is a bit of gamble since, Guhle has been somewhat prone to injury so far in his pro career, but if he can keep the injuries at bay, I believe this contract will be a sound investment for the organization.
Just like Hughes has been using Suzuki as his measuring stick up front when it comes to the contract signings of his other forwards, he'll now be using Guhle on the blueline. When Jordan Harris comes knocking at the end of next season for his new deal, he will be compared to Guhle to establish how much his salary should be. None of the current defensemen can give the Canadiens' number 21 a run for his money when it comes to what he brings to the game, but it won't be the case forever.
If Hutson and Reinbacher live up to the team's expectations, they'll both be earning more money than Guhle on their second deal and managing to keep the 22-year-old's AAV low was key for Hughes.
I thought the GM would start by inking Guhle this Summer, but he went with his two RFAs first and it worked out very well for him. It would have been hard to sign Xhekaj and Barron to lower deals really. Both have an opportunity to prove themselves with bridge deals and once those expire, they will still be under team control as RFA and Hughes will have a clearer picture of who his six regular blueliners will be. Hutson, Mailloux, Engstrom, there is plenty of competition to come and for now, Guhle is the only one who has been identified as part of the core with a long-term deal.
It's also worth noting that the Summer has made one thing clear: the players are buying what Hughes is selling. Caufield and Slafkovsky accepted deals lower to Suzuki's and Guhle signed a team-friendly contract as well which will help manage the next crop of defensemen's expectations.
Related
