The Canadiens avoided their only arbitration hearing of the summer on Thursday, re-signing Kirby Dach to a one-year, $3.6 million contract two weeks before the case was scheduled to be heard. General manager Kent Hughes confirmed the one-way deal, which settles a file that had been pointed toward a July 30 arbitration date since the middle of the month.
The number lands almost exactly where a hearing might have left it. Dach had received a $4 million qualifying offer and filed for arbitration once it expired on July 15; the $3.6 million cap hit sits between that figure and the roughly $3.4 million floor his side was working from, about $200,000 above the least an arbitrator could reasonably have awarded. For a player coming off the season Dach just had, that is a fair meeting point rather than a win for either camp.
That season is the reason the term is so short. Dach played 37 games for the Canadiens in 2025-26, missing 31 with a fractured foot and finishing with eight goals and 15 points. Montreal acquired him in a draft-day trade with Chicago in 2022 and signed him to a four-year deal at a $3.36 million average; he has yet to play a full, healthy season since. A one-year bridge keeps the commitment small while giving him a clean runway to prove the top-six upside is still there.
For Hughes, the short term is also a cap convenience. It keeps Dach on a movable number and lets Montreal revisit his value next summer with more evidence, when several of the club’s young forwards will be pushing for raises of their own.
What Dach needs now is health and a defined role. At 25, and a restricted free agent again in a year, he is signing up to answer the same questions that have followed him since the trade — this time on the shortest possible leash.
In fantasy terms, Dach is a wait-and-see hold rather than a draftable name. A healthy season in Montreal’s middle six, with power-play exposure, would put him back on the streaming radar in deeper leagues, but the fractured-foot layoff and the one-year term make him a late-round dart until a role is locked in. Dynasty managers can still buy low on the pedigree, which continues to outrun the production.
