Towering player's four years in Montreal has cost the Canadiens more than just draft picks

Over four seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, Dach has missed 174 regular-season games and played just 154.

That number is what turns a talent conversation into a cap conversation.

This past season showed the full arc. Dach played 37 games, posted eight goals and 15 points, then went pointless in his final nine postseason contests against Carolina with zero shots on goal in the last four.

He entered 2025-26 as second-line center. He finished the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the fourth line.

TVA Sports' Renaud Lavoie reports Kent Hughes will issue a qualifying offer at $4 million before the June 29 deadline to preserve Dach's trade value, not to retain him.

Stu Cowan agrees.

Lavoie and former NHLer Georges Laraque have both pointed to the Edmonton Oilers as the natural destination, with Colton Dach already on the roster and Kirby raised in Alberta.

The 2022 trade sent Alexander Romanov to the Islanders for the 13th overall pick, which was then flipped with the 66th selection to Chicago for Dach.

The Blackhawks used that 13th pick on Frank Nazar, who posted 41 points in 66 games this season while Dach managed 15 in 37.

That chain does not indict Dach personally. But it frames the structural problem Hughes now faces - Montreal still does not have a reliable second-line center behind Nick Suzuki, which was the entire reason this trade happened four years ago.

With Montreal projecting roughly $9 million in cap space heading into 2026-27, qualifying and trading Dach is the cleanest path and a second or third-round return is the expected floor of his value.

The harder question Hughes must answer is what comes next at second-line center, because that vacancy was the reason this bet was made, and it still remains.