Watch: Kirby Dach on video
Kirby Dach and the Canadiens now have a date on the calendar. Dach, the only Montreal player to elect salary arbitration this summer, will have his hearing on July 30 — the second-to-last day of the league’s arbitration window — which gives the two sides roughly 17 days to settle before an arbitrator sets the number for them.
The filing itself raised eyebrows. Montreal extended Dach a two-way qualifying offer carrying a $4 million salary at the NHL level and an AHL rate if he could not stick on the roster, per HabsWorld. Electing arbitration was the 24-year-old’s counter — a way to push for a one-way resolution rather than accept the risk baked into a two-way deal. That qualifying offer is set to expire July 15 unless the club extends it in writing, though the two sides can keep negotiating right up to the hearing regardless.
Why it matters
The stakes are narrow but real. The lowest award an arbitrator can hand down is $3.4 million, which effectively sets the floor for any settlement; the ceiling is the $4 million the qualifying offer already implied. Dach and the Canadiens are therefore haggling over a band of roughly $600,000 and, more consequentially, the structure — one-way versus two-way — that determines whether he can be assigned to Laval without clearing waivers, as he did last season.
For a former third-overall pick who has fought injuries and inconsistency across his Montreal tenure, this is a pivotal negotiation. A one-way contract keeps him firmly in the NHL picture on a Canadiens team trending up after a playoff series win last spring; a two-way outcome would signal the club still views him as a roster question mark. The next two weeks decide which.
Both sides have reason to avoid the hearing room, where arbitration testimony can turn adversarial and strain a relationship the club may still want to preserve. Expect Montreal to work the phones before July 30. If no deal comes, an arbitrator will decide Dach’s 2026-27 salary — and, indirectly, his standing in the organization.
Fantasy-wise, Dach is a deep-league flier until the contract structure clears. His talent has never been the question; health and deployment have. If he lands a one-way deal and a top-nine role with power-play time, he is a reasonable late-round upside bet in points leagues. Until the arbitration path resolves, keeper managers should hold rather than buy — the range of outcomes, from bounce-back to buried in Laval, is simply too wide.
