Canadiens sign Maksymillian Szuber to one-year contract
The Montreal Canadiens have agreed to terms on a new one-year, two-way contract with restricted free agent defenseman Maksymillian Szuber, the club announced Monday afternoon.
Szuber, 23, joined the Canadiens via a trade with the Utah Mammoth in June. The Canadiens acquired the 6’3″ left-shot defender in exchange for the rights to 22-year-old forward Joshua Roy.
According to PuckPedia, Szuber’s new contract with the Canadiens carries an $850,000 NHL cap hit; he’ll be paid a $135,000 salary in the AHL and is guaranteed to earn a minimum of $175,000 regardless of where he plays during the 2026-27 season.
The Arizona Coyotes originally selected Szuber in the sixth round (No. 163 overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft. The Opole, Poland product spent his developmental years with DEL club EHC Munich, winning a league championship in 2022-23, before coming to North America.
Szuber joined the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners in 2023 and spent the entirety of his entry-level contract with the club, save for his lone NHL game to date with the Coyotes in the 2023-24 season. He acquitted himself well in the Arizona and Utah organizations but was surpassed on the depth chart by the likes of Dmitri Simashev and Maveric Lamoureux before being traded to Montreal.
Through exactly 200 career AHL games over three seasons with the Roadrunners, Szuber has collected 25 goals, 87 points, and 162 penalty minutes. He’s also appeared in five career Calder Cup Playoff contests with Tucson, recording one assist.
With Szuber signed, the Canadiens now have three restricted free agents left to deal with this offseason: Zack Bolduc, Arber Xhekaj, and Sasha Pastujov, the latter of whom they just acquired from the Anaheim Ducks last week in exchange for Sean Farrell. Meanwhile, Bolduc and Xhekaj both played regular roles on the 2025-26 Canadiens team that reached the Eastern Conference Final.
