There are these quotes that stick to the skin of their author. Marc Bergevin, for example, took a long time to forget his famous allegory of the PlayStation, explaining that it was easier to conclude transactions in video games than in real life. Even if he then concluded several daring deals (hello, PK Subban), the image of the PlayStation was never far away.
Kent Hughes shouldn’t have to justify his inaction too often. “Jeff [Gorton] said he was going to tie me to my desk to prevent me from doing one trade per week! “Dropped the general manager, jokingly, on Friday.
For the first time in his tenure as DG of the Canadian, Hughes has indeed come up against a wall. Busy at the 2022 transaction deadline, hyperactive last summer, this time he had to settle for crumbs.
The term here is not to denigrate Denis Gurianov, Frédéric Allard or even that brave Tony Sund, who appeared on very few bingo cards for this transaction deadline.
Rather, it is to remind us that unlike the other pivotal moments of his reign, he was unable to achieve his objectives, faced with a market that did not want what he had to sell.
“We would have liked to make one or two more exchanges, agreed Hughes, during a meeting of about thirty minutes with the media in Brossard. But trades are always to move forward in our goal of building a team that can win consistently. And we did not find an exchange that would have made us move forward. »
Two seasons, two realities
It is therefore a winter at the antipodes of that of last year that Hughes has just known.
The rookie CEO had indeed started his new career on a high. Confirmed in his duties on January 18, 2022, he concluded his first major trade a month later, on February 14, sending Tyler Toffoli to Calgary.
Ben Chiarot, Artturi Lehkonen and Brett Kulak would then go there.
It must be said that he was then exchanging players in good health, who had just succeeded in an improbable run in the playoffs the previous spring. Lehkonen’s usefulness was revealed during these 2021 playoffs and the Avalanche got their money’s worth last year.
From all those trades, Hughes got Justin Barron, who is starting to get comfortable in the NHL, two first-round picks (one to come, another who became Filip Mesar), two second-round picks (one to come, another who became the scheming Lane Hutson), an interesting draft in Emil Heineman and other draft picks.
When the summer came, his main objectives were to find a second-line center to support Nick Suzuki and to settle the thorny case of Jeff Petry. Added to this was an upcoming surplus of left-handed defenders. Those cases were settled first in the draft, with the three-way trade that earned him Kirby Dach, then in July when he found a taker for Jeff Petry.
The wounds, again and again
So what happened this time? Injuries. Lots of injuries. At least that’s what complicated things for Monahan and Edmundson1.
Edmundson’s contract expires in 2024. “His name was in the market for a while, in rumors. I don’t want to go into details, but his injury had an effect… I put myself in the shoes of the teams who were interested in him and that would have influenced me too,” admitted Hughes.
The tall defender returned to action on Thursday, playing 16 minutes, but obviously it would have taken more for a player struggling with recurring back pain.
Like Monahan, Jonathan Drouin is spending the last year of his contract. Despite sustained production since 1er January (12 points in 17 games), he is yet to score in 38 games this season and has suffered his share of injuries in recent years.
“Everyone has noticed an improvement lately and the Canadiens are benefiting from it, but the ceiling and other things have complicated things. We are happy that he is finishing the season with us,” said Hughes.
And then, the 2021 final begins to be far away. Of all the “tradeable” players, Edmundson and Josh Anderson are the only ones who actively participated.
If Edmundson’s health betrayed him, Anderson’s long contract may not have helped. His contract expires in 2027, and no player with such a long contract has been traded this winter. The player with the longest contract to move is defenseman Mattias Ekholm, whose contract expires in 2026. Ditto for Shea Weber, but that’s a whole other discussion.
Gurianov will therefore have been the only addition to the main training this winter, on the transaction market. It’s a bet, a project, a leap into the void, the most romantic would say.
“We made the trade with the plan to keep him, assured Hughes, about the player who will become free agent with compensation this summer. But everyone has a job to do and ours is to assess it. When we arrived last year, one of our problems was the space under the ceiling. This summer, we will have flexibility for the first time, but each player will have to enforce his contract. »
Despite this meager record, Hughes was not downhearted either. Injuries have certainly been the pebble in his shoe, but those injuries have allowed youngsters Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Arber Xhekaj and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, to name a few, to assert themselves in bigger roles than expected. .
“We have seen individual, collective and coaching progress,” noted Hughes. We have made progress in our reconstruction in the sense that we no longer know what to do. But we still have to add elements to find ourselves where we want to be. »
His next chance to do so will come as the draft draws near, and possibly on draft day itself, too, if the lottery smiles on him.