P.K. Subban is the future of the Montreal Canadiens

When P.K. Subban and Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin left the  arbitration hearing, emotions were intense. Multiple hours of opposing arguments and disagreements do not often set the stage for both player and organization to reach common ground.

But 24 hours later Subban and the Canadiens reached an agreement on not just any contract, but a major eight-year, $72 million deal. It’s the kind of long-term commitment that will make everyone quickly forget about the conflicts of these negotiations that concluded in arbitration.

“I think that it sends a strong message to me that they want me here and they appreciate everything I’ve done to this point and they believe in me as a player,” Subban said. “I think I’ve always believed that, but obviously in this process and coming out with this result, now everybody else understands it and can see it as well and doesn’t have to speculate about how the Montreal Canadiens feel about me.”

Subban, whose new contract will count $9 million against the teams salary cap through the 2021-22 NHL season, has been very vocal about his desire to stay in Montreal. The 25-year-old stated during the negotiation process that he did not care about the collective bargaining agreement, and he would have signed up for 20 years with Montreal if he could have.

Subban’s new contract currently makes him the highest-paid defenceman in the league, ahead of Weber of the Nashville Predators ($7.8-million) and Ryan Suter of the Minnesota Wild ($7.5-million) but also comes in the first year of a new Canadian television rights deal that is estimated to make the salary cap grow enormously.

“Realistically we can’t all predict where the cap is going to be in Year 2, in Year 3, in Year 4, in Year 5, but we can look at recent history and where the cap has gone in terms of increases,” Subban said. “I think that we also look at current players and what they’ve signed for and the market. That’s what our game’s driven on now is market value and how you perform and what other teams are doing.”

Subban’s 155 points since his first full season in 2010-11 ranks him seventh among defensemen in the league. He won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman during the lockout-shortened 2013 season and had 10 goals and 43 assists in 2013-14 season.

“A key element of our group of young veterans, P.K. plays with a high level of intensity every time he steps onto the ice,” Bergevin said in a statement. “Despite his young age, he carries a great deal of experience and brings contagious energy to the team. Defencemen of his level are a rare commodity in the NHL.”

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Next season and in 2015-16, Subban will make $7 million. He will get $11 million in 2016-17 and 2017-18, $10 million in 2018-19 and 2019-20 and $8 million in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

His $9 million cap figure for next season trails only Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals ($9.54-million) and Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins ($9.5-million). After 2018, the matching $10.5-million cap hits of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, of the Chicago Blackhawks, will take the lead.

But Subban, who credited Canadiens owner Geoff Molson for his “monumental impact” during negotiations, also said he was conscious that Montreal needs salary-cap space to build a strong Stanley Cup contention team. He states this contract leaves “more than enough room” for the Canadiens organization to do just that.

“It was just a matter of getting something done that was fair value for myself and fair for the Montreal Canadiens,” Subban said. “The player always wants to be paid fairly but you also want to be able to win a Stanley Cup. It’s important to do that, and to do that you need to have good teammates.”

With the new contract agreed upon, Subban can now focus his attention on securing a Stanley Cup win after successfully obtaining “financial stability” for himself and his family. An arbitration award would have paid him substantially, but that would have been only for one season, and Subban could have been a restricted free agent again next summer.

That was a distinct possibility if both sides waited for the arbitrator to declare a ruling, even though Subban said he never had a doubt that a long-term contract would get done. Subban’s team and Bergevin resumed talks to beat the arbitrator to the punch and eliminate any uncertainty.

Despite the atmosphere of negativity that comes from any arbitration hearing, Subban again called the process of going through it an “educational experience.” He also praised the professionalism of Bergevin, Molson and the entire Canadiean organization.

Any fears that arbitration would ruin the environment between Subban and the Canadieans faded with this deal. But the Toronto native insisted that there was never anything personal and that the entire process was just about business.

“I think we were all on the same page right from the start,” he said. “Maybe it took a little bit longer than people suggested that it would take, but in the end it got done.”

Now that Subban is locked up as a Canadien until 2022, he now has to live up to his end of the contract by helping the Habs win a Stanley Cup.