Chris Kreider signed with the Canadiens for $2.15 million, and the reasons behind it run a lot deeper than the number.
Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports reported the terms Saturday. One year, low base, bonuses stacked on top.
The path opened Thursday. Lavoie wrote that Anaheim asked the winger to tear up his contract so the Ducks could clear cap room.
That left him a free agent with no compensation owed. Pat Verbeek let a 22-goal scorer walk into the open market for nothing.
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Montreal was never a long shot here. Lavoie published a column the day before the signing laying out exactly why.
Martin St-Louis and the newest Canadien were teammates in New York across 2013-14 and 2014-15. That relationship is not theoretical.
The team's announcement card still shows him mid-stride in Ducks orange, a faded Anaheim crest floating behind the black-and-white headshot.
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Why Chris Kreider really chose the Canadiens over every other team
Lavoie called it the elephant in the room, and he isn't wrong.
In the 2014 Eastern Conference Final, Kreider collided with Carey Price in Game 1 and Price came out of it with a knee injury.
Lavoie noted that not one player from that Canadiens roster is still in Montreal today.
Twelve years is a long time to carry something. Whether the building remembers it that way is another matter entirely.
There's more pulling him here than nostalgia. Lavoie pointed out that Jeff Gorton negotiated his last contract as Rangers general manager, and Gorton now works in Montreal.
Then there's Jim Ramsay, the Canadiens director of sports medicine, who held the same job in New York for years.
Lavoie described Ramsay as a near-paternal figure for the winger, the kind of steadying presence a 35-year-old body leans on hard.
The money mechanics matter too. At his age he qualifies for performance bonuses, so the base stays low and the payroll stays clean.
Lavoie dropped the figure in a single line, no setup, no context, just the number and the word bonuses.
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The acquisition also did not cost a draft pick. Kent Hughes added a proven scorer without surrendering a single asset.
Kreider put up 50 points in 75 games with the Ducks.
Eight of those goals came on the power play, plus nine power play assists. He still lives in the paint.
Montreal finished sixth overall with 106 points, so this is a contender adding a piece, not a rebuild collecting spare parts.
The Canadiens went 24-9-8 on the road, and that is the number that tells a front office it's close.
The playoff run says more. Seven games to get past Tampa Bay, seven more to survive Buffalo.
Then Carolina closed it out in five, and the final two were a 4-0 shutout and a 6-1 blowout.
That's the gap. A 35-year-old deflection artist on a bargain deal doesn't close it alone.
The deployment question stays open. Nick Suzuki put up 101 points and Cole Caufield scored 51 goals, so the top six is spoken for.
Juraj Slafkovsky already owns the net front on the first unit after scoring 15 there.
Here's the honest read. This signing is the spare tire in the trunk, and you'd rather never have a reason to pull it out.
There's a wrinkle in the recent form too. Six points across his last ten games, and only two landed in the final five.
The relationships got him to Montreal. Whether they buy him ice time in October is a conversation nobody at that rink has had to have yet.
Should Canadiens fans forgive Chris Kreider for the 2014 Carey Price collision?
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Montreal Canadiens sign Chris Kreider in stunning blockbuster free-agent move
