The Canadiens gave up a lot to get Kirby Dach from the Chicago Blackhawks four summers ago.
First, Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes traded defenceman Alexander Romanov to the New York Islanders for the 13th overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft. Hughes then traded that pick, along with a third-round pick, to the Blackhawks in exchange for Dach.
Chicago used the 13th pick to select 5-foot-9, 190-pound centre Frank Nazar. The 22-year-old had 15-26-41 totals in 66 games this season with the Blackhawks. Dach, 25, had 8-7-15 totals in 37 games with the Canadiens as injuries — including a fractured foot — continued to be a big problem for the 6-foot-4, 221-pounder.
Canadiens’ Kirby Dach battles Hurricanes’ Jaccob Slavin in front of Canes goalie Frederik Andersen during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final at the Bell Centre last month. Dach did not register a shot in the last four games of the series — all losses. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette
During his four seasons with the Canadiens, Dach has missed more regular-season games with injuries (174) than he has played (154). His injury problems date back to his time with the Blackhawks after they selected him with the third overall pick at the 2019 NHL Draft.
After Dach posted 8-15-23 totals in 64 games as a rookie with the Blackhawks in 2019-20, he was loaned to Team Canada for the IIHF World Junior Championship the next season. Dach broke his wrist in a tournament exhibition game against Russia and required surgery. He only played 18 games with the Blackhawks that season, posting 2-8-10 totals. The next season, 2021-22, Dach played 70 games with the Blackhawks, posting 9-17-26 totals and a minus-18 differential while winning only 32.8 per cent of his faceoffs.
The Blackhawks had seen enough and traded Dach to the Canadiens only three years after making him the No. 3 pick at the draft.
Now, the Canadiens need to decide if they have seen enough of Dach, who can become a restricted free agent this summer. To keep Dach’s rights the Canadiens would need to make him a US$4-million qualifying offer ahead of July 1 or try to sign him to a new contract worth less after he had a salary-cap hit of US$3.362 million this season.
The latter option appears to be the only way Dach stays in Montreal — if he wants to stay here and if the Canadiens still want him. At this point, it’s probably best for the Canadiens and Dach to move on.
When Hughes met with the media last week he said it was too early to make a decision on Dach and that he would be meeting with president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton, assistant GM John Sedgwick (who manages the salary cap) and head coach Martin St. Louis. Hughes described Dach as a talented player who has been unlucky with injuries.
“It’s hard,” Dach said about his long list of injuries, including two major surgeries on his right knee. “I think the mental aspect of it people don’t really understand or know truly what I’ve gone through and what I’ve dealt with in terms of the injuries and rehabs and trying to find my way back to my own game and be confident in that aspect. But for me I never really lost confidence in myself. I know better now who I am as a person and a player.
“It’s been a long couple of years with the surgeries and the injuries,” he added. “It adds up and mentally it wears on you and physically it’s another thing. But, for me, I just kept trying to have the same attitude coming to the rink every day and making sure that I was doing everything I needed to be in the lineup.”
As for his future, Dach said: “The season was what it was and for me I wasn’t really focused on that (contract situation) at all and thinking about that. Take some time over the next few weeks and figure it out.”
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Dach played the first five games this season as the second-line centre before suffering an injury that sidelined him for three games. Rookie Oliver Kapanen took over the second-line centre role and Dach finished the playoffs as a fourth-line winger, posting 4-1-5 totals while playing in all 19 postseason games. Dach had no points in the last nine playoff games and was minus-7. He had no shots on goal in the last four games against the Carolina Hurricanes.
After acquiring Dach from the Blackhawks, Hughes said it was a “very difficult” decision to trade Romanov, but that sometimes you have to make sacrifices to get what you want.
“We were looking to improve, get a little bigger, faster in the middle of the ice if we could,” Hughes said after acquiring Dach. “There’s also, in a perfect world, an age component to it so that (Dach) can grow with our young core, and certainly he fit that description for us. We knew he was available potentially, so we spent a good amount of time trying to understand who Kirby Dach was. He went third pick overall. What’s happened with Kirby Dach? Why is Chicago willing to move him?
“Again, I’ve said it all along, we’re going to invest money in developing hockey players and trying to get the most out of their potential, and we believe Kirby has significant potential,” Hughes added. “We think with the Montreal Canadiens, in this environment, can bring him along and get him to a point where he can be a pretty special centreman.”
That didn’t happen.
Four years after acquiring Dach, Hughes must now realize why the Blackhawks were willing to trade him.
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