- PuckPedia has the full structure of Chris Kreider’s one-year Canadiens contract, including a no-move clause
- The deal pays $850K in salary, a $1.3 million signing bonus and up to $3.25 million in performance bonuses
- Read below for the goal thresholds Kreider has to hit to collect
Chris Kreider can make an extra $500,000 in Montreal by scoring 40 goals.
That is the top rung of a bonus ladder PuckPedia laid out Sunday, two days after the Canadiens announced they had agreed to terms with the 35-year-old winger:
His actual salary is small. Kreider gets $850,000 in pay and a $1.3 million signing bonus, which is where the $2.15 million cap hit comes from.
Everything on top of that has to be earned. He collects $2 million once he plays 10 games, another $250,000 at 10 goals, $250,000 more at 20 and again at 30, and the last $500,000 if he gets to 40. Stack it all together and the real AAV is $5.4 million.
Then there is the no-move clause. Anaheim put Kreider on unconditional waivers Sept. 9 and terminated the last year of his contract, so he spent the week with no say in where he landed. Montreal handed him full control of that four days later.
We had the top-line number Saturday night, before any of the structure came out:
Saturday’s figure was up to $3 million in bonuses. The itemized version lands at $3.25 million.
Twenty-two goals and 50 points in 75 games is what Anaheim got last season, and that was his eighth straight year at 20 or better. So the first three tiers are live money. The 40-goal check is not. Kreider has cleared 40 once in 14 seasons, when he put up 52 for the Rangers in 2021-22.
Players 35 and older can only carry performance bonuses on a one-year deal, which is why the contract is shaped this way at all.
Take a look at every goal that got him here:
Kreider has been the most booed visiting player in Montreal since 2014. Now the Canadiens are paying him $250,000 a pop to score.
