Kirby Dach is still wearing a Canadiens sweater, but the path to keeping him in Montreal apparently got a lot thinner than most people realized.
Darren Dreger said the Canadiens came close to moving the 25-year-old forward, with GM Kent Hughes having advanced talks on a deal that would have sent Dach out and brought back a draft pick. The exact pick was not specified, only that it was described as a decent one. The team on the other side of the talks also wasn’t identified.
That matters because Dach’s name hasn’t just floated around in rumor season - Dreger confirmed he remains available on the trade market. So while Montreal held onto him, the door clearly hasn’t been shut.
For a player drafted third overall by Chicago in 2019, the production has not matched the billing. Dach has 52 goals and 142 points in 322 career games, and this season he has six points in 16 games, including one power-play goal. That lack of offense is still part of the conversation around him.
The contract situation only adds another layer. Dach is set to become a free agent after the season, which means Hughes has another decision coming on whether Montreal keeps him in the long term or tries to cash in before that point.
Dreger suggested the talks took place around the deadline, or possibly even before then. Either way, Montreal had a real chance to make a move and didn’t pull the trigger.
A draft pick wouldn’t have been a headline-grabbing return for a former third-overall selection, but it would have been a clean exit if the Canadiens wanted one. Instead, Dach stayed put, and after Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime loss to Minnesota, he’s still in the lineup as Montreal heads into Boston.
His name has also surfaced in trade proposals tied to Nikita Kucherov, while separate rumors have linked Hughes to Dylan Larkin. Those ideas haven’t turned into an actual Dach negotiation, but they show how often his name has been dragged into the conversation.
For now, he remains a Canadien. The bigger question is how long that lasts.
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