Bolduc and Xhekaj Hold Out as the Montreal Canadiens Wrap a Reloading Summer

August arrived in Montreal with two names conspicuously missing from the payroll. Zachary Bolduc and Arber Xhekaj remain unsigned restricted free agents as the Montreal Canadiens' offseason enters its dog days, and in a market where a backup goalie's grocery list makes headlines, that standoff was the week's dominant storyline. It's a strange kind of problem for this franchise to have — a contender's problem. The Canadiens just played into late May for the first time in years, locked up their two most important young players on long-term deals, and are now down to the fiddly, irritating final items on the summer checklist. How Kent Hughes closes these last two files will tell you a lot about how he sees the roster he's built.

The Contract Standoffs: What's Actually Holding Things Up

Start with what we know. As of a July 29 report, Bolduc and Xhekaj — along with depth pieces Sasha Pastujov and Maksymilian Szuber — had yet to sign, and unsigned RFAs can't play. Both received qualifying offers, so their rights aren't in question; the holdup is presumably the usual argument over term and money. The more colorful theory floating around Montreal media, aired on Stu Cowan's podcast, is that Hughes might be slow-playing the signings to preserve trade flexibility — an unsigned RFA can be moved without locking in a number, the way Montreal itself once acquired Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook. To be clear, that's speculation, not reporting, and the boring explanation (a gap on term) remains the likeliest one. But the fact that the theory has legs at all says something about how aggressive this front office has been. Compare the Dach file, which resolved cleanly: rather than let a July 30 arbitration hearing decide it, the Canadiens and Dach agreed on July 16 to a one-year, $3.6 million deal. After a season of just 37 games and 15 points — a fractured foot suffered against Boston in November cost him 31 of them — plus 4 goals and 1 assist in the playoffs, a prove-it year was the only deal that made sense for either side. If Dach finally stays healthy, $3.6 million looks like a bargain; if he doesn't, the commitment expires on its own.

The Run That Reset Expectations in Montreal

None of this summer's mild drama lands the same way without remembering what happened in the spring. The Canadiens finished 2025-26 at 48-24-10 — 106 points, third in the Atlantic — then went on a playoff run nobody outside the room saw coming. They outlasted Tampa Bay in seven games, survived Buffalo in seven more on Alex Newhook's Game 7 overtime winner, and marched all the way to the Eastern Conference Final — three wins from a Stanley Cup Final berth, from a group whose average age still skews closer to a college reunion than a retirement party. Carolina ended it in five, and did so emphatically — a 6-1 clincher, a 4-1 series in which Montreal was outshot a staggering 167-89 and never once scored first. The power play went 2-for-13 against the Hurricanes' pressure, home ice turned hostile with four straight losses at the Bell Centre to close the run, and the schedule math was brutal: 19 games in 41 days against an opponent that had needed only 13 to get there. Rookie goalie Jakub Dobes played every single one of those 19 games; Lane Hutson led all playoff skaters in total ice time at 483:36. The tank hit empty, but the point was made — this team is ahead of schedule.

Demidov's Megadeal and the New Core Math

The defining move of the Canadiens' offseason took exactly one day of free agency to happen. On July 1, Montreal signed Ivan Demidov to an eight-year extension worth $73 million — a $9.15 million cap hit beginning in 2027-28. That's a franchise planting its flag on a 20-year-old coming off a 62-point rookie season (19 goals, 43 assists) and a runner-up finish in Calder voting. A day later, Dobes got his own reward: a three-year extension at roughly $5.36 million per season, also starting in 2027-28, on the strength of 43 starts and a playoff workload no rookie goalie should survive. Layer those onto the in-season extensions for Lane Hutson (eight years) and Mike Matheson (five), and the picture sharpens. The core is Suzuki, Caufield, Demidov, Hutson, Dobes — signed, young, and already good. Nick Suzuki just delivered a 101-point season (29 goals, 72 assists). Cole Caufield scored 51 goals. Hutson put up 78 points from the blue line in his second year. Teams spend a decade trying to assemble that sentence.

The Summer Reshaping: Who Left, Who Arrived

Around the edges, Hughes has been busy in his usual low-key way. The emotional headline came June 29, when Brendan Gallagher — fourteen years of face-first hockey in bleu-blanc-rouge — was traded to Vancouver, with Montreal retaining half of his $6.5 million cap hit. Patrik Laine walked as an unrestricted free agent, closing a Montreal chapter that never quite worked. The incoming traffic was all about optionality:

• Brett Berard, acquired from the Rangers for William Trudeau — a fast, pesky winger who fits the identity.
• Hunter McKown, acquired from Columbus for Luke Tuch.
• Maksymilian Szuber, acquired from Utah for Joshua Roy, adding blue-line depth.
• Depth signings: goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, Alex Belzile, Samuel Poulin, and Ethan Samson, mostly bound for Laval.

Departures beyond the headliners included Joe Veleno (unqualified, signed with the Rangers) and Sammy Blais (Ottawa). The bigger picture: Montreal entered the summer with roughly $14 million in cap space, though Hughes has noted about $4 million of that must be held back for potential performance bonuses — $3 million tied to Demidov alone. That's still real room, and the front office has made no secret of wanting a top-six forward, with Columbus winger Kirill Marchenko among the reported targets. Hughes put the onus squarely on himself: "We need to find a way to improve the team, and it's on my shoulders to do it."

What's Next for the Montreal Canadiens

The to-do list from here is short but consequential. Sign Bolduc, who arrived from St. Louis last summer in the Logan Mailloux trade and is too useful to leave in limbo. Sign Xhekaj, who chose not to file for arbitration — read into that whatever goodwill you like. Decide whether the Marchenko-style swing happens now or gets revisited at midseason. And then get everyone to training camp in mid-September with the sort of expectations this market hasn't carried in a decade, ahead of an October opener that will feel less like a fresh start and more like a continuation.

That's the week in Montreal Canadiens news: no fireworks, two unsigned restricted free agents, and a franchise that has quietly transitioned from rebuilding to reloading. The gap between this team and the Stanley Cup was measured in May — it looked like 167 shots to 89 against Carolina, a power play that dried up, and a lineup that ran out of gas. The Demidov and Dobes extensions were the long-term answer; the last two RFA signatures and one more scoring forward are the short-term one. The Canadiens have until camp to finish the sentence they started writing in the spring. Fans should expect the pen to move before the leaves do.