The Montreal Canadiens won't be acquiring Kirill Marchenko; the Toronto Maple Leafs have won that derby, but that doesn't mean Kent Hughes didn't try.
When Elliotte Friedman tweeted that a deal was imminent between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Columbus Blue Jackets for Kirill Marchenko, a sense of dread took over Montreal Canadiens fans on social media; not only were the Habs unable to land their top offseason target, but he was going to land right in their backyard, with divisional rival Toronto. Worse still, in return, the Leafs were sending Matthew Knies, another reported Habs target, the other way, meaning two Canadiens targets were swiftly taken off the board.
As details of the trade and the extension signed by Marchenko trickled through on X and Bluesky, dread turned to anger for some, who lamented Kent Hughes’ inaction and inability to land top targets. While fans' deception is understandable, the anger is misplaced. Hughes didn’t sit on his hands this summer, and it’s quite clear that he made the best offer he could to get the Russian winger, but the Jackets and Don Waddell weren’t after what he was selling.
Hughes likes the core he's assembled and has identified a need for another big winger to make up for having only one Juraj Slafkovsky. Marchenko was that man, but to pry him away from Columbus, Montreal would have needed to part with core pieces. The Jackets aren’t rebuilding; they’re not blowing up their lineup (at least not yet). They wanted to remain competitive and to do that, they needed to land an impact player for this season in any deal for Marchenko. That’s why the Leafs had the edge; they were willing to part with Matthew Knies, whose offensive output (66 points) was almost identical to Marchenko’s (67 points) last season.
In a nutshell, Hughes wasn’t willing to rob Peter to pay Paul. A move involving a core piece wouldn’t have moved the needle the right way or at all for the Canadiens; it would have been a lateral move at best, and that’s not even guaranteed, as you cannot know for sure if the new acquisition will gel as well with your existing group as the core piece you traded away.
Once it became clear that Columbus wanted an impactful roster player, it was pretty evident the Canadiens were out of the running. The roster players Montreal would presumably have been willing to let go of could have included Kirby Dach, Oliver Kapanen, Jayden Struble, Arber Xhekaj, and maybe Kaiden Guhle because of his injury history; they couldn’t bring them a legitimate top-six forward, with all due respect to the players mentioned above.
If the Canadiens want to land that kind of player, they need to find a target that’s on a struggling team who’s ready to blow it up and accept prospects and futures in return. Because that’s what the Canadiens have available: prospects and draft picks. Montreal won’t be able to sign and play all the prospects in their cupboards; they’ll need to use some as currency to buy other assets, but they need to find a team that accepts that currency. You can’t buy something priced in Euros with Francs that are no longer legal tender; it’s the same with Hughes trying to get Marchenko with futures when Columbus wanted a roster-ready player or players.
As much as Canadiens fans wanted Marchenko, it became evident that it wasn’t going to happen when Hughes and co. elected to go for Chris Kreider. The power forward filled the same need but cost absolutely nothing in core or future assets. Of course, it’s not a long-term solution, but the hope is that the Canadiens have players in their system who will develop into impactful top-six players, like Michael Hage and Alexander Zharovsky. That being said, if an opportunity arises to get a top-six asset at the right price, with the currency Hughes is willing to part with, he will be all over it.
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