After a blockbuster trade, don’t expect the Montreal Canadiens to waste any time locking up their new forward.
Expectations are that the Canadiens will open talks with Drouin quickly.
Habs plan to begin contracts talks with RFA Drouin ASAP. Don’t want to waste any time with that.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 15, 2017
It is believed MTL GM Marc Bergevin and Drouin’s agent Allan Walsh have already commenced negotiations on a contract extension.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 15, 2017
As for what a potential contract would look like, comparable situations say the contract should be within a $5.5-6.5 million cap hit range.
Drouin is RFA. Potential stars coming off ELC usually get 5 or 6 x $6M, give or take $500K. So a range of $5.5M to $6.5M. No prob for MTL.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 15, 2017
Of course, the Canadiens – as of now – also have Nathan Beaulieu and Alex Galchenyuk as pending restricted free agents, as well as Alexander Radulov and Andrei Markov as unrestricted free agents.
It will be interesting to see how things develop from here. One thing, though, is that Drouin is very happy to be a member of the Montreal Canadiens as his agent Allan Walsh said his client was very happy about the trade.
Walsh on Drouin: “His words to me when I told him he was traded was, ‘This is my dream come true. This is my childhood dream.'” #Habs 690
— Chris Nichols (@NicholsOnHockey) June 15, 2017
An interesting off-season for the Montreal Canadiens just got a bit more interesting as there are several dominoes yet to fall as we head towards the expansion draft.
