Dach: 'I'm excited to get things rolling'

MONTREAL -- General manager Kent Hughes and forward Kirby Dach met with reporters on Wednesday at the Bell Sports Complex.

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Dach just signed a four-year contract with the Canadiens through the 2025-26 season.
Here are a few highlights from the press conference:
Dach on finally putting pen to paper with Montreal:
I wasn't worried at all. My job is just to focus on hockey and train all summer. I let Kent and the team and my agent go through that contract stuff. But, I'm excited to be here. It was a good first day and a good first skate. It was good to be around the guys and get integrated into the locker room. I'm just really looking forward to the start of camp and getting things rolling.

Dach on his possible role with the team:
I've talked to Marty [St-Louis] a few times about just coming here, playing with an open mind, just being ready when camp starts, kind of proving myself, and just enjoying the game of hockey again. I'm ready to play some good games and see where it kind of takes me.
Hughes on being confident in Dach meeting expectations:
Just about every trade that we've done, before we do it, we take the time to do our due diligence and understand the player as a player, but also as an individual. We're comfortable with who Kirby Dach is as a human being, first and foremost, and what his potential is. There's no such thing as being 100 percent certain in this business, but we believe he's got a lot of potential, and we believe in this environment, with our group, with our coach, with our development group, and the character of the locker room, that this is a better environment for Kirby Dach, and in that environment, we're comfortable that he's going to achieve good things in the Montreal Canadiens organization. Do we know 100 percent? No, but we're prepared to bet on it.

Dach on learning from his previous experience in Chicago:
I think I've always been confident in my play. I don't think that's ever really wavered. Coming here, it's almost like a restart for me. There were ups and downs during my three years in Chicago, whether they were things that I could control or couldn't control, but I'm in a good spot. I feel good with my game. It was good to get out and skate with some of the guys. I think the biggest takeaway I have coming here is just to play free, be creative, just use my instincts a little bit more, trust myself around the net, shoot pucks a little more, and just kind of be that dual-threat player that I want to become. I spent most of the summer working on that, just trying to break out of the past three years, put it behind me, and just focus on the positives moving forward.
Dach on his health situation:
I feel 100 percent healthy. There's really no problems with the wrist anymore. It's completely healed. I think it took a bit longer than I thought it would, but it's good to kind of be at full health, trust my body and my instincts out there, and not second guess anything. I don't really have any health issues, I just feel confident and ready to play. I'm just really itching for camp to kind of prove myself and establish something in the League here.

Dach on the length of his contract:
I just kind of figured that the four years gives me a little more time to grow and develop, especially with this team, the direction they're heading, to get in the groove with the guys, to kind of start to build something chemistry-wise in the locker room, and build a team here. I think the four-year deal really helped me out. In the long run, if things all go well and we're sitting here at the end of two years, I might be leaving money on the table, but at the end of the day, it's about winning Stanley Cups and not about making a lot of money. Obviously, that comes down the road, but that's second after winning.
Dach on Hughes' commitment to playing a more offensive game:
It's obviously a great opportunity. When Kent and I talked [on July 7 after the trade], I was still kind of going through a lot of emotions, but I was super excited. Once kind of the dust settled and I could see the forward group here, the direction they took when Marty took over, how well they played, and how free, offensive, and flowing the game really became for them, it was quite exciting for me to get an opportunity to come here and play. I think it'll fit into my game, and my game fits into that as well. Come September 22, I'm excited to get things rolling and see how it all plays out.