Kent Hughes was thrown into the fire when he was named general manager of the Canadiens on Jan. 18, 2022.
A season after advancing to the Stanley Cup final before losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Canadiens were sitting in last place in the overall NHL standings with a 7-25-5 record when Hughes was hired. Less than two months earlier, Canadiens owner/president Geoff Molson fired GM Marc Bergevin and hired Jeff Gorton as executive vice-president of hockey operations — the first step in a full rebuild.
This year’s NHL trade deadline is at 3 p.m. Friday and it could be a quiet one for Hughes after he re-signed Jake Evans to a four-year, US$11.4-million contract on Tuesday. Only three years into the rebuilding plan, the Canadiens were only two points out of a wild-card playoff spot heading into Thursday’s game in Edmonton against the Oilers (9 p.m., TSN2, RDS).
Hughes, a longtime player agent before the Canadiens hired him, had only two months in his new job before his first NHL trade deadline as a GM. He didn’t wait that long before starting to make moves.
On Feb. 14, 2022 — the deadline was March 21 — Hughes traded Tyler Toffoli to the Calgary Flames in exchange for a first-round pick at the 2022 NHL Draft (used to take forward Filip Mesar), a fifth-round pick in 2023 (Russian goalie Yevgeni Volokhin), Tyler Pitlick and Emil Heineman.
It was the first major trade in the rebuilding plan.
“We all know where we are in the standings and with new management coming in changes are going to happen,” captain Nick Suzuki said after the trade. “It’s part of hockey. Most teams have gone through it. It’s the first piece. It’s tough to lose Toff. It definitely sucks to be on the business side like that, but it happens.
“We have a lot of good young players in the system already and probably at this time next year, we’re going to have more through the draft,” Suzuki added. “I think the future’s really bright for this team. I’m very happy to be here in Montreal, I want to be here. I want to win here, so hopefully we don’t need five years to rebuild. I know other guys that are a little bit older and want to stay here, don’t want it to be such a long rebuild. Hopefully, we can make it quicker.”
Five days before the 2022 trade deadline, Hughes traded defenceman Ben Chiarot to the Florida Panthers in exchange for a first-round pick at the 2023 draft, a fourth-round pick in 2022 (centre Cedrick Guindon) and Ty Smilanic. That first-round pick was later traded to the Colorado Avalanche as part of the deal that brought Alex Newhook to the Canadiens.
On trade-deadline day in 2022 Hughes traded Artturi Lehkonen to the Avalanche in exchange for Justin Barron and a second-round draft pick in 2024. Hughes also traded defenceman Brett Kulak to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for William Lagesson, a second-round pick in 2022 and a seventh-round pick in 2024.
Barron didn’t work out with the Canadiens, but Hughes was able to trade him this season to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Alexandre Carrier. The second-round pick Hughes received in the Kulak trade was used to draft Lane Hutson.
After a busy first trade deadline as a GM, Hughes didn’t do much in 2023. His main move was as a third team helping broker a trade that helped the Pittsburgh Penguins land Nick Bonino.
Last year, Hughes didn’t wait until the March 8 trade deadline, dealing Sean Monahan to the Winnipeg Jets on Feb. 2 in exchange for a first-round pick at the 2024 draft and a conditional third-round pick in 2027. Hughes later traded that first-round pick (26th overall) to the Los Angeles Kings as part of a deal that allowed the Canadiens to move up to No. 21 and select centre Michael Hage. Hughes also used the second-round pick he acquired in the Lehkonen trade and the seventh-round pick he got in the Kulak trade as part of the package to move up and draft Hage, who has 13-20-33 totals in 31 games as a freshman at the University of Michigan.
On trade-deadline day last year, Hughes traded goalie Jake Allen to the New Jersey Devils for a conditional third-round pick at the 2025 draft.
“Listen, I look forward to the day that we’re buying, not selling,” Hughes said after trading Allen. “I’m as competitive as the next person. I want to feel the highs and lows of winning and losing that come when you’re expected to compete for a Stanley Cup. So the faster that it could happen the better off it is. I’d like to be around for it. But I don’t want to do it at the expense of doing it the right way and I think that’s how we all feel as a management group and as an organization.”
The Canadiens have done things the right way and now find themselves in a position where they don’t have to sell at Friday’s trade deadline.
In Year 3 of a rebuild, that’s very impressive.