Habs lock up one of their young defensemen for 3 more years.

The Montreal Canadiens have locked up a member of their young core to a brand new contract. 

On Saturday morning the Canadiens announced via their official website that the team had negotiated a brand new deal for 25 year old defenseman Brett Kulak. The Habs themselves have released the terms of this deal which will work out to an average annual value of $1.85 million over the next 3 seasons. When you consider how old Kulak is this deal will effectively but the Canadiens the prime years of his National Hockey League career and he will be 28 years old by the time this contract has run its course.

Kulak was of course originally a member of the Calgary Flames organization after he was selected in the 4th round (105th overall) of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft by that organization. Kulak would go on to play in roughly 100 NHL games over the course of several seasons with that team, splitting time between the NHL and the American Hockey League while doing so. He was then dealt to the Montreal Canadiens in a relative minor deal that would see Matt Taormina and Rinat Valiev go back the other way to the Flames in the deal.

In his most recent season Kulak split time between the Montreal Canadiens and their AHL affiliate team the Laval Rocket. In 19 games for the Rocket this season he recorded 3 goals and 8 assists for a total of 11 points and finished wiht a plus minus rating of +2. Meanwhile he spent significantly more time at the NHL level appearing in 57 games where he picked up 6 goals and 11 assists for a total of 17 points and finishing with a plus minus rating of +12.

His new deal with the Canadiens will represent a drastic increase in pay for the young defenseman as he was previously working on a 1 year deal he had signed with the Flames that only saw him earning $900,000 last season. His bump up to $1.85 million represents more than double what his previously salary was so I would imagine that today will represent one of the high points of Kulak's career thus far.