Canadiens Sign Jake Allen, Make Future Trade a Real Possibility

With Carey Price on the shelf, the Montreal Canadiens announced that they have inked their new starting goaltender to a two-year extension, giving netminder Jake Allen a couple of extra seasons at an annual average salary of $3.85 million. There were rumors the Canadiens were looking to get this deal done and that talks had begun a few weeks ago. They weren’t considered to be serious negotiations, but clearly, the discussions turned a corner in the last few days.

🤝 Done deal 🤝

Jake Allen (@34jallen) is staying with the @CanadiensMTL! pic.twitter.com/O6ryD3deFq

— NHL (@NHL) October 1, 2022

The news will keep him with the organization through the end of the 2024-25 season, assuming he’s not traded before then. With the way this extension was put together, that’s a real possibility, especially when you consider where the Canadiens are at as an organization. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic broke down the two years: in 2023-24, Allen gets a $500K signing bonus, with a $3.8 million salary and a partial no-trade clause. In 2024-25, Allen gets a $1 million signing bonus, with a $2.3 million salary and a partial no-trade clause. These are nice numbers for a team that might be looking to solidify their goaltending at an affordable rate down the road. If the Canadiens are not in the playoff mix, there might be discussions about a deal.

Reaction to the contract extension suggests that these two years are really just a bridge deal until the Habs figure out their future. A team that might be going through a full rebuild but isn’t really acknowledging that plan, Allen likely isn’t their future. He’s a stopgap until a goaltender of the future presents himself. Is that Cayden Primeau? It’s hard to know at this stage.

The partial no-trade is workable for the Canadiens. In 2023-24, Allen can submit a seven-team no-trade list. In 2024-25, it’s a three-team no-trade list. This would suggest that if the Canadiens do look to move him, it will be between the trade deadline this season and the trade deadline of next season.

All that said, without Price, a trade isn’t imminent. Allen will get the bulk of the starts in Montreal this season and the team will see where they are at in terms of being competitive. Allen also knows this will be a showcase opportunity. He said after Price went down, “But for me, personally, it’s another great chance for me to play some more games in a role that in the grand scheme of things I think I’ve had more or less the last two years with the injuries and situations. It’s just another chance to build my game and help this team, guide them along and sort of be a steady presence for them back there.” If he can prove himself capable of doing so, other teams will certainly be interested in him.

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