Canadiens GM Kent Hughes on why he didn't sell at the NHL trade deadline — and what comes next

MANALAPAN, Fla.

In a year of dramatic peaks and valleys, the Montreal Canadiens late-season run is sending a pretty important message to management.

Theyve arrived.

Or at the very least, theyre close to arriving.

Every win during this stretch run is an important piece of information for general manager Kent Hughes as he measures the growth of his young team.

Advertisement You always learn from your players when they have the opportunity to play really important games how they respond, how they react in those moments, Hughes told The Athletic after the GM meetings wrapped up Wednesday.

To me, theres a growth element to the team, theres a growth element to your coaching staff because they havent been in those situations at the NHL level as coaches.

So yeah, its certainly helpful for us in terms of securing more answers or feeling more comfortable as you make decisions going into the summer and moving forward.

Well look ahead to the offseason in a moment.

But first, lets not forget where this all was about five and a half weeks ago.

Theres a clear contrast between now and how the Canadiens front office felt about playoff chances and the trade deadline after seeing the team drop eight of nine games before the 4 Nations break, including getting swept at home on back-to-back days on Super Bowl weekend.

Now, theyre one of the hottest teams in the NHL with an 8-1-3 record coming out of the break.

Its night and day.

Lets not kid ourselves: After yet another loss Feb.

9, this one to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre, the Canadiens front office was pretty much in sell mode.

We were disappointed, obviously, Hughes said.

Everybody was players, coaches, management with the tough run going into 4 Nations on the heels of having played so well.

Now, with another good 10- or 11-game run, that feels like it was just a bad stretch among what otherwise has been a pretty healthy stretch of hockey for us.

But, when youre sitting in a management chair and trying to make decisions, you know, you get to a point (like they did Feb.

9) where you dont have a choice.

Were not ready.

Maybe were best off continuing to collect draft capital and trading away expiring deals and living for the future.

Advertisement But then captain Nick Suzuki and his group sent management a clear message post-4 Nations with a blazing run.

It made us say, OK, were going to wait and just see,' Hughes said.

You feel pretty good when you dont end up doing it (selling), that the team continues to win.

Whether the team makes the playoffs or not, if the bottom had fallen out right away on us (after the deadline), youd feel terrible.

Terrible, he added, for not having turned a pending unrestricted free agent or two into some draft capital.

Theyre pretty honest remarks from Hughes, but truly its how every GM of a bubble team feels.

Theres no perfect handbook for being right on the line.

Vancouver Canucks GM Patrik Allvin expressed a similar sentiment earlier this week .

In the end, the Habs put pending UFA Joel Armia at a market price come March 7, which was a clear overpay for teams, and didnt lower their ask because by then they were OK keeping everyone.

I wouldnt say that we came close, Hughes said of dealing Armia.

By the time we got closer to the deadline, we started to move the goalposts a little bit for everybody.

I told teams, I cant say an absolute no, but its going to have to be a massive overpay for us to consider doing it.

The other (pending UFAs), David Savard and Christian Dvorak, were less likely for me just because I didnt think the return was worthwhile and we would have had to grab players out of (AHL) Laval and weaken Laval and to get mid-round picks, it wasnt worthwhile.

The reality now is that regardless of whether the Habs get in, their season has been won.

Their desire was to play meaningful games in March.

To be sitting in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference on March 21 is beyond those expectations.

Hughes work is more or less done now until the season ends, whether that includes a playoff berth or not.

Another important offseason awaits with Montreal having salary-cap flexibility and draft capital at its disposal.

Adding another top-six option up front would be front of mind.

Advertisement But the Habs GM also wanted to clear the air Wednesday.

I did an interview earlier this week (at the GM meetings) that got taken a little out of context, saying that we were going to overpay in the trade market, Hughes said.

I think I was contrasting the two options: one being overpaying in contractual commitments (free agency) versus overpaying in assets to acquire contracts (via trade).

And it was in the context of signing a 32-year-old free agent to a seven-year deal at X amount of money that you knew wasnt going to age well, because were not that team that feels were at the end (that) weve got a three-year window to win and were OK living with a bad contract on the backside.

It was really more just to illustrate the point that we need to be smart about how we go about this thing because we expect our window to be ongoing six or seven years from now.

So Hughes wants it to be clear that while, yes, the organization has draft capital and a good cap situation and wants to be proactive this summer, hes still going to be smart about it.

We will be very engaged in terms of exploring ways that we can make us a better hockey team, but were not going to ...

we cant be short-sighted in how we go about it, thats all, Hughes said.

Weve got to consider the present and the future in every decision that we make given that we have a lot of really good young hockey players that we expect to be with us for a very long time.

All in all, an important distinction from the Canadiens GM there: He wants to improve the roster, but its not yet who-cares-about-the-future, swing-for-the-fences time.

And what about the Buffalo Sabres-Ottawa Senators trade that saw two young centers Dylan Cozens and Josh Norris swap teams? Its hardly a secret that the Canadiens had shown interest in Cozens, but at the end of the day, they didnt have a Norris to trade.

Sabres GM Kevyn Adams made it clear to teams that he didnt want a futures deal for Cozens.

Advertisement It was hard for Buffalo to trade a good young player for a good young prospect or a draft pick or some combination of, said Hughes, careful not to mention Cozens by name because of NHL tampering rules.

It had to be more of an apple-for-apple trade.

With where the Montreal Canadiens are, in a perfect world, the ideal situation for us on the trade front is dealing prospects or draft picks not taking Cole Caufield out or Nick Suzuki out.

I dont want to switch a green apple out for a red apple.

So the fit on a Cozens deal just didnt appear there for Montreal, which sets up an offseason where the Habs will try to find that type of piece elsewhere.

Thats easier said than done, knowing there are plenty of other teams looking for that kind of a mid-20s center, including the likes of the Canucks and the Calgary Flames.

In the here and now, its about sitting back and enjoying the ride.

The 2024-25 season, regardless of its outcome, has proven to be a crucial step in the rebuilt Habs coming together and announcing to the hockey world that theyre coming.

As a rival GM who didnt want to be quoted on the record just happened to say unsolicited to me at the GM meetings this week, That team scares me.

(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images).

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