Where you the Canadiens' front office land in Dom Luszczyszyn's next poll.
Back in 2021 when Luszczyszyn ran his pole, the Montreal Canadiens' hockey operations department landed in the 17th spot. That was just after the Habs' unlikely Stanley Cup final run, then in 2022 it landed in the 16th spot, dangerously close to the bottom half of their standing. Last season, in 2023, HuGo (yes GM Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton the vice president of hockey operations) climbed a couple of spots up the standings, landing at number 14.
Signings
Since then, Hughes has signed former first-overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky to an eight-year contract extension with a very reasonable cap hit. With an average annual value of $7.6 million, the youngster comes in right under Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki's AAV. What that tells me is that Hughes is able to sell his salary structure to the players. Slafkovsky could have been difficult and held out until his entry-level deal was over. After all, he was a first-overall pick. Instead, he fell in the ranks and agreed with Hughes that it's ok for his salary to be under that of his two linemates, first-overall tag or not.
On the blueline, having Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron as restricted free agents this Summer gave the GM a chance to start establishing a salary structure there as well. Since the former is a much more established NHLer, I was expecting his signing to come first and his AVV to be higher than the latter and it was, but not by much.
Hughes managed to sign them both to two-year deals on the same day. Xhekaj was first to pass go and collect $200 so to speak coming in with a deal worth $2.6 M with an $1.3M AAV. A few hours later, Barron's deal was announced. His contract is also a two-year pact and it's worth $2.3 M and a AAV of $1.15 M.
This is spectacular negotiating from the GM, he bought himself more time to reassess how the two rearguards will fit on the Canadiens' blueline once the new crop of defensemen is added to the mix. Should Hughes need to trade one of them, they'll be attractive options for other teams with such low AAV.
Then, just yesterday, the GM signed a contract extension with Kaiden Guhle. It's a six-year deal with a $5.55 AAV worth $33.3 M overall. More than the value though, it's the meaning of the deal that's important. The defenseman joins Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky as part of the long-term core.
It shows Hughes has taken the time to evaluate his first crop of defensemen and signed the one he identified as most efficient long-term. It doesn't mean that Xhekaj, Jordan Harris or Barron can never join the core, but so far they haven't and the Habs brass wants to see what the next group of blueliners has in store.
Drafting
Last year, when the fans took the survey, the selection of a right-shot defenseman in what was for them a very forward heavy draft was fresh in their memories. They were mad Hughes had passed on Matvei Michkov, they wanted offense, which is a pretty normal expectation in hockey, and the confidence in Hughes was somewhat wavering.
A year later, the Habs' brass selected Russian forward Ivan Demidov on top of getting another talented forward in the first round in Michael Hage. The youngster was picked 21st-overall after the trade with the Los Angeles Kings allowed Montreal to pick five spots earlier. They were initially listed to pick 26th overall thanks to the latest Shane Monahan trade in which Montreal had acquired Winnipeg's first round pick. It's borderline amazing how Hughes has been able to squeeze every little bit of value from the former Calgary Flames since acquiring him prior to the 2022-2023 season.
Free Agency
In free agency, Hughes had mentioned he wanted to improve his top-six, but the lack of term on the deals he was offering prevented him from signing anyone. Still, that's a positive. How so? Because Hughes didn't panic. He has a plan in mind and he is sticking to it. He refused to saddle his team with big contracts for players who would be on the downward trajectory of their career by the time the Canadiens were ready to compete.
Essentially, Hughes refused to fall victim to the trap in which Marc Bergevin fell more than once by giving a lot of term to players who wouldn't be in their prime in the last few years of their contracts. This to me is a very big factor in trusting the front office.
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