Bolduc Still Unsigned, but Montreal Isn't Walking Away

Zack Bolduc finished the season with 10 goals and 19 points at minus-9 — not the kind of line that typically invites creative contract conversations. And yet here we are in August, with reporting surfacing the idea of a Ville Koivunen-style extension structure as a possible path to getting him signed. Kent Hughes isn't closing the door; he's looking for a different one.

The minus-9 is real and it matters. Bolduc was on the ice for bad things more often than good ones, and his 13-and-a-half minutes of ice time per game tells you the coaching staff knew it. But 10 goals on limited deployment, at his age, is something the front office is apparently willing to build around rather than write off. That's a read, not a guarantee — but it's a meaningful one.

It also fits the pattern of this offseason. Hughes locked up Demidov long-term in July, moved on from Gallagher, added Dach and Berard for secondary scoring, and signed Szuber to shore up the back end. Every move has been pointed at the same problem: the offensive collapse that defined the final weeks of the season. Bolduc, even with an uneven year, is part of the answer they're constructing — or at least they think he could be.

Training camp is close. This is the one loose thread left.