No, the Montreal Canadiens’ Alex Newhook trade is not all sunshine and lollipops. Anyone who argues otherwise is conveniently ignoring its drawbacks, namely the price to acquire Newhook and the resulting, deeper logjam up front, which means fewer opportunities for the team’s prospects. However, the potential positives outweigh the drawbacks, at least at these early stages of the relationship.
After Newhook’s four-year extension, the hope is that relationship continues for a long time to come, at least for the next half-decade or so at a cost-effective $2.9 million hit. So, while there is good reason not to blindly get behind the deal that brought him to the Habs, even if meant securing a young forward with high potential, the deal securing his medium-term future is far harder through which to shoot holes. As an illustration, here are the top three ways the contract is a good omen for that aforementioned future:
3. Canadiens Keep Getting Younger
Already a young team at the end of the 2022-23 season, the Canadiens are getting even younger with Newhook, who’s only 22 and change. By the end of the four-year term of the deal, he’ll also be helping to keep the team’s average age down (based on what it is currently), just with the experience of having already won a Stanley Cup.
True, the Canadiens technically gave up a chance to get even younger, by giving up two relatively high draft picks in a stacked draft (and prospect Gianni Fairbrother) to get him. However, there’s a low chance second-round picks so much as turn into NHL players at all. In Newhook, they’ve got an established NHLer, who’s theoretically on his way to developing into a top-six forward. So, at least in that one way, the high price was relatively justified.
While youth alone doesn’t guarantee success, a positive trend is developing on the roster. Entering 2025-26, the last year of Newhook’s new deal, the contracts of all of the team’s current old guard, excluding Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson and Mike Matheson (and the long-term-injured-reserve-destined Carey Price officially speaking), will have presumably expired (barring extensions). That translates to no deals to Mike Hoffman, Joel Armia, Jake Allen, David Savard (and even the bought-out Karl Alzner) weighing the team down.
In one way, that only means the team’s current younger players will be getting older to replace them. However, by continuing to acquire and extend younger players like Newhook and Kirby Dach (or by simply drafting and developing them like Cole Caufield), the Canadiens give themselves a chance to be less reliant on unrestricted free agency, which is volatile in the best of times (even when you are “lucky” enough to sign who you want). It also helps that all members of the projected core should all be in their respective primes by then.
2. Favorable Comparison to Dach’s Extension
Speaking of Dach, both his and Newhook’s extensions will likely be continually compared, based on the similarities behind their individual acquisitions. They’re both 2019 first-round picks, who play center and wing and got acquired on the first days of back-to-back drafts.
Both Dach and Newhook each even signed for four years, even if there’s now one less year remaining on Dach’s deal, obviously. However, the one key difference, even if it isn’t a large one, is the cap hit. Dach’s is $3,362,500. Newhook’s is less at $2.9 million, even if he signed his deal one year later (with inflation theoretically taken into account).
On one hand, it’s easily justifiable, considering Dach’s status as a former third-overall pick. Newhook was meanwhile taken one spot after Caufield at No. 16. Furthermore, when the Canadiens acquired Dach, it was no secret they needed a second-line center and he was supposed to be it (even if it didn’t exactly turn out that way).
Related: Host Canadiens Steal Show by Getting Slafkovsky, Dach at 2022 Draft
With Dach having enjoyed success on the top line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield as a winger, Newhook can certainly be the one to eventually that role instead. They just don’t absolutely need him to, with Dach and fellow-center Sean Monahan in the mix as well. As a result, he simply had less leverage than Dach in principle.
So, some may suggest it was a Jedi mind trick on Hughes’ part to have gotten Newhook for less (arguably in terms of the price to acquire him in the first place too). However, it’s likely all by design. That having been said, if it all is indeed by design, Hughes does deserve credit for making it a reality.
It points to a bigger picture, which oddly enough is reflected in Caufield’s eight-year, $62.8 million extension too. Caufield obviously came in a hair lower than Suzuki’s $7.875 million hit ($7.85 million), effectively setting an internal cap on the team’s pay structure. It’s admittedly a big ask for Hughes to keep it intact in the coming years. However, in the here and now, both the Caufield and Newhook extensions should instill confidence in how deals are getting negotiated and ultimately signed relative to their Suzuki and Dach counterparts.
1. Habs Have Already Accomplished All They Need to This Summer
With the signing, Hughes has effectively accomplished everything on his to-do list to fill out his NHL roster for 2023-24. That he’s done it all before mid-July with several months to go before the start of training camp has to be considered not only impressive, but a Godsend in some respects.
After all, you have to believe Hughes would love to do more, even if he doesn’t necessarily need to. For example, the contracts of Armia, Hoffman and, even if it’s incredibly unrealistic, Gallagher are each burdens to varying degrees. They’re also eating up roster spots that would ideally go to younger player, speaking to the aforementioned logjam.
Re-signing a player like Jesse Ylonen, who has arguably made great strides earning an NHL spot, is now more so a priority to fill out the American Hockey League roster instead. There simply isn’t enough room. With Newhook signed, the Canadiens have no fewer than 14 forwards in line for spots.
That doesn’t even include Ylonen, who will have to go through waivers. Also potentially missing out? Sean Farrell, who joined the Canadiens straight out of college last season, or Lias Andersson, who just signed a two-way deal, but fits the Habs’ popular reclamation-project template. It can’t turn out a success unless he eventually gets time in the NHL too.
So, thankfully Hughes has time to at least try to make room. Short of any remaining top priorities, that must be the focus. What else is there (aside from a solid foundation on which to build a winner)?
