Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes wants Montreal to be a place where players want to play.
That wasn’t really the case before he took over as GM three years ago as part of the rebuilding process under Jeff Gorton, the executive vice-president of hockey operations. The Canadiens were the worst team in the NHL at the time.
“From the outset, we’ve talked a lot about culture and what we’re trying to build in Montreal,” Hughes said after acquiring Patrik Laine from the Columbus Blue Jackets last summer. “How we try to treat the players and everybody that works within the organization and what we expect in return from everybody that works or plays for the Montreal Canadiens and the part that they have to do to contribute to that culture and we spoke to Patrik about that.”
Hughes has said several times that during his long career as a player agent before becoming GM that players are happy “when hockey is going well” no matter what city they’re in. Things have been going well for the Canadiens during the third full season of their rebuild with them sitting three points out of a wild-card playoff spot after the weekend with a 30-27-6 record.
That’s a big reason why Jake Evans decided to sign a four-year, US$11.4-million contract extension last week when he almost certainly could have earned more as an unrestricted free agent on July 1. It’s also why Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak and David Savard — all eligible to become unrestricted free agents on July 1 — are happy Hughes didn’t move them ahead of last Friday’s NHL trade deadline.
When Hughes met with the media Friday afternoon in Brossard, I asked him if Evans’s decision to take less money to stay in Montreal might send a message to other players around the league.
“I hope so,” Hughes said. “I hope whether it’s Jake making that type of decision to stay here and not go to the open market or just word of mouth from our players that are here. That’s part of the decisions that we make. We turn around and rip a few players out of the dressing room again today — or sometime this past week — to get a couple of more draft picks that we hope we could trade and get a special player down the road … that has an impact, right? How do they feel, what do they feel about the team, how do they feel about management and how does that ripple effect impact what you’re trying to do?”
The Canadiens have become a very close-knit team. That’s why head coach Martin St. Louis scheduled practice Friday in Calgary to start just after the trade deadline passed.
“It’s a difficult moment, stressful for certain players,” St. Louis told reporters in Calgary after Friday’s practice. “The ice is a sanctuary. So we scheduled the practice at that time and it gave us a chance to go through that stressful moment together. I thought it was important.”
If the Canadiens hadn’t gone on a five-game winning streak after the 4 Nations Face-Off break in the schedule, Hughes would have taken a different approach at the trade deadline. Heading into the break the Canadiens went 1-7-1 in their previous nine games to fall six points out of a wild-card spot.
“I’m happy we went on this nice run here and happy I get a chance to make the playoffs with the Canadiens,” Armia said.
St. Louis said it was a case of Hughes keeping his word to the players after they got back in the mix for a playoff spot.
“I don’t know if necessarily we changed their plan,” St. Louis said. “He talked to the team early in the season and he said: ‘Guys, if we’re in a position we’re going to reward you for it.’ And that’s what they did.
“If you think about a little over three years ago I took the job and I knew it was a rebuilding team,” St. Louis added. “But I feel like we’ve progressed and I feel like we’re on track to doing the things that we said we’re going to do. Is this the year that we flip the needle? It’s going the other way now, right? So, to me, that’s a good sign. I think at some point when you’re a rebuilding team you got to flip the needle. And is it this year? It looks like it to me. And now it’s just to keep moving forward.”
The Canadiens are winless in their last two games — a 3-2 overtime defeat in Edmonton and a 1-0 loss in Calgary — but they played well in both games.
St. Louis is happy Hughes kept the team intact.
“When you have a young core I think it’s important to surround them with some quality veterans.,” St. Louis said. “Obviously, great players, too, but quality humans and we have that and I think it helps guide the youth that we have. Those guys are very selfless — I talk about Andy (Josh Anderson), Gally (Brendan Gallagher), Savvy (Savard), (Mike) Matheson.”
Those guys also want to be in Montreal.