Montreal Canadiens: Kent Hughes Has Repeatedly Put Neck On The Line In Short Time With Habs

The Montreal Canadiens general manager from 2012-2021, Marc Bergevin could be described as someone who often took the safe route. During his time with the Habs, there were not a lot of “home run” swings or moves that really deviated from conventional wisdom.

His first few big trades were often one roster player for another that filled the same hole it opened. Erik Cole was traded for Michael Ryder. Even when P.K. Subban was dealt, he was a top pairing right defender traded for top pairing right defender Shea Weber.

Sure, it was a huge trade but the general manager wanted Subban gone and dealt him for someone who could immediately fill the same space on the team’s depth chart. Alex Galchenyuk, a middle-of-the-lineup left winger was traded for Max Domi, a middle-of-the-lineup left winger, who was later traded for Josh Anderson, a middle-of-the-lineup right winger.

A lot of the trades ended up working out well, but none of them had a ton of risk attached where he could look awful a few years down the line. There is some risk built in to every trade, but Bergevin wasn’t one to put his neck on the line with a massive decision that went against conventional wisdom.

The same can not be said of Kent Hughes, himself a bit of an off-the board choice to run the team. No one expected the former agent to leave his position in the hockey world to take on the role as general manager. He had no experience working for an NHL team, though he was constantly working for its players.

Since arriving in Montreal on January 18th, most of Hughes biggest decisions have gone against the grain. It will take time to see how they turn out, and early returns are favourable, but Hughes has chosen to throw caution to the wind early on in his tenure with the Canadiens.

His first major decision was to hire Martin St. Louis as head coach. St. Louis is a Hall of Fame player but his coaching experience was at the peewee level and he never came close to standing behind an NHL bench before taking on the Habs role in February. St. Louis was known to Hughes for years as their kids played together growing up in the Eastern United States and currently play together at Northeastern University.

The safe bet would have been to hire a retread of an NHL coach like we saw when Michel Therrien and Claude Julien were hired by Bergevin. Even an AHL veteran like Benoit Groulx would have been considered somewhat risky, but St. Louis was from way out in left field.

Hughes ran a pretty traditional trade deadline for a general manager of a rebuilding team. He traded away pending free agents and added plenty of draft capital and prospects to the organization.

The NHL Draft however, was a different story. The Canadiens held the first overall pick and even Juraj Slafkovsky himself seemed a bit surprised when his name was announced. The huge left winger had some strong performances at the World Championships and Olympics, but only ten points in 31 Liiga games.

The safe, and consensus pick, was Shane Wright, but Hughes chose to take the bigger gamble on Slafkovsky, since a 6’4″ left winger with speed and skill is nearly impossible to find.

Hughes didn’t deviate from his plan when he had to hire an assistant coach. Luke Richardson left to take on the head coach role for the Chicago Blackhawks, leaving a vacancy on the Habs bench.

Stephane Robidas was hired, and he has lots of experience in the NHL, playing over 900 games in his career. He also worked in player development for the Toronto Maple Leafs for four years, but wasn’t a coach. His only coaching experience was an Under-18 team in Quebec last season and he was supposed to be an assistant in the QMJHL this season.

Instead of hiring a veteran like Guy Boucher, Marc Crawford or someone who has been around for years, Hughes chose Robidas.

This means Alex Burrows, who has been an NHL coach for a year and a half, has the most experience of anyone on the Canadiens bench.

This isn’t a criticism of Hughes at all. In fact, I think it is well beyond the time that the Canadiens ignore traditional decision making and blaze their own trail a little bit. What it has done though, is open Hughes up to a tremendous amount of criticism if it doesn’t work.

He should have a bit of a pass for next season, but if the team isn’t pushing for a playoff berth by 2024, a lot of questions are going to be asked of Hughes.

Why didn’t hire a head coach with NHL experience? Why didn’t he take Wright at the draft? Why didn’t he find a veteran assistant coach?

Hopefully it all works out and he looks like the smartest general manager in the league in short order. If not, with the many risks taken, Hughes has opened himself up to a lot of questioning with his continued desire to buck conventional wisdom.

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