BROSSARD, Que. — An eight-year, $73.2 million contract for Ivan Demidov is the biggest win the Montreal Canadiens could’ve achieved on a day that set most teams up to lose big.

Plenty did, dumping barrels of money into arguably the shallowest unrestricted free-agent pool in NHL history.

The Canadiens, however, stayed out of those waters, avoiding the trap of making deals they’d almost certainly regret and electing to swim in their own pool by locking up a huge piece of their core for what’s likely to be a much smaller chunk of change than Demidov’s contemporaries will command over the coming weeks.

Not that Macklin Celebrini, Connor Bedard, Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier don’t have better cases for bigger deals with their respective teams.

But if they sign for what they’re expected to — at least one of them for close to double what Demidov will make annually over the course of his contract if he signs for eight years — it’ll only reinforce how much of a win this was for the Canadiens.

General manager Kent Hughes might as well have been sipping Louis Roederer Cristal 'Gold Medallion' instead of the filtered water that was in front of him as he sat alongside Demidov to discuss it. Even with the salary cap rising significantly year over year, even with comparable players earmarked for bank-breaking deals, Hughes appeared elated to have gotten the same team-friendly commitment from his star that core members Nick Suzuki, Cole........

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