Minnesota Wild's announcement: a surprise $9 million dollar contract for Samuel Montembeault?

If his summer 2023 was busy (he signed 13 players since June 2nd), the one of 2024 will be, internally, much quieter. To date, only three players will become restricted free agents next July 1st (Jesse Ylonen, Juston Barron, and Arber Xhekaj), while five could become unrestricted free agents. Of these, only one, in our opinion, deserves attention. We're talking about Samuel Montembeault.

The goalie had a magnificent progression in 2022-2023, putting veteran Jake Allen in his pocket. It's almost certain that Hughes will want to keep him for the coming years. It remains to be seen how much he's worth.

As mentioned by Félix Forget from the site DLC, the pact that Filip Gustavsson signed with the Wild in recent days is the perfect comparison.

The Minnesota goalie, who only has 66 league games experience, literally exploded last season. His average of 2.10 goals allowed and an efficiency rate of 0.931 in 39 matches totally prove it.

If Montembeault didn't have as good a campaign, his numbers are still good. He ended the season with an average of 3.42 goals allowed and an efficiency rate of 0.901 in 40 games. What plays to his advantage here is his experience in the show, as he has played no less than 103 games in the big league. Put the Wild's defense in front of Sam, and he's almost certain to have as good numbers as Gustavsson.

The one we call Monty comes out of a 2-year contract that earned him an average of $1M per season. Without signing a deal as lucrative as his Wild counterpart ($3.75M/year), he could very well earn between $2.5 and $3M annually. Knowing that Jake Allen has a salary of $3.85M, Montembeault therefore deserves such a sum.

After the Wild's announcement and after the signing of their goalie, a $9 million contract over three years seems fitting for Samuel Montembeault and the Montreal Canadiens.

Last July 1st, Hughes mentioned wanting to settle the cases of Newhook, Harvey-Pinard, and Ylönen before tackling his goaltenders. Now that the three cases mentioned are closed, it wouldn't be surprising if an agreement between the CH and Montembeault were made public before the start of the campaign!