It’s been a season to forget in Montreal thus far, and there’s still more than half of it to play. With sweeping changes in the front office, the Canadiens are hoping their most recent hire can help jumpstart their rebuild and get them back into the playoff mix sooner rather than later.
After an almost shocking fall from grace, the Habs currently sit in last place in the league with an 8-25-6 record, less than a year removed from making a Stanley Cup finals run. Management didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on a front office shuffle and hopes that a reset at the highest levels of the organization is what this team needs moving forward.
Kent Hughes was announced as the 18th General Manager in team history this week, and was formally introduced at a press conference on Wednesday. Here are the 5 biggest takeaways from the media’s first interactions with the new GM:
1)The Habs Got Their Guy
Hughes began the press conference with a formal statement in French, expressing how this was his childhood team, and the hire feels like a homecoming of sorts for him. You can debate the merits of a professional sports organization prioritizing language ahead of demonstrable proficiency all you want, but this is Quebec, and the Canadiens are an institution, not just merely a flitting interest for fans.
Hiring a Francophone compliment to Jeff Gorton was high on the Habs checklist when they began interviews. And evidently, the team cast a fairly wide net when they looking to fill the role:
While 11 candidates for a prominent position may not seem like much at first glance, remember this is the NHL. A league that regularly recycles the same 40-50 names for the 32 available positions whenever one pops up. The fact that they went with an outsider (i.e. non-former NHL player/coach) is actually fairly progressive for the organization, sad as that statement may be.
The bottom line however is that Hughes wants to be there, he’s fully bilingual, he’s well respected in NHL circles as a former player agent, and he checks all the boxes the Habs wanted. From the outset it’s a great hire, but as they say, time will tell.
2)Don’t Expect Changes Overnight
Montreal will be sellers at this year’s trade deadline, make no mistake about that. However with deadline day currently set for March 21st, the new GM has two months to get a feel for what he’s working with.
Expect Hughes to take his time and properly evaluate not only what’s on the current NHL roster, but what’s in the pipeline in terms of prospects as well over the coming weeks. Just because he’s the new Sheriff in town doesn’t mean he’s going to make a slew of trades right out of the gate. The Montreal native announced he plans to conduct player interviews in the coming days to get to know his personnel on a personal level before exploring any trade options.
Where the team decides to go from here is anyone’s guess. Fans could see anything from a “retool” to a complete teardown and rebuild, and both options would be justified. That being said, to date, it doesn’t appear as though anyone in the Canadiens locker room is actively seeking a ticket out of town:
3)Other Candidates May Still Have Roles To Play
With Hughes now in place, there’s still the matter of filling out the other front office positions, including Assistant GM roles with the team. At Wednesday’s press conference it was revealed that just because they didn’t ultimately land the GM role, that the organization wasn’t necessarily ruling out bringing some of the candidates into the fold for different positions.
The 3 finalists for the GM position were reportedly Hughes, former Habs player Mathieu Darche, and Daniel Briere. While no one is tipping their hand quite yet, it wouldn’t be altogether surprising to see someone from the interview list get brought in to support Hughes in his new role.
Other names that the Habs allegedly kicked the tires on include Patrick Roy, Stephane Quintal, Emilie Castonguay, Daniele Sauvageau, and Marc Denis. Could one or more of them be joining the bleu, blanc, et rouge in some capacity if Hughes and Gorton decide to completely clean house and bring in new blood at all levels of the front office? It could be.
Just because Bergevin, Timmins and Wilson are gone, doesn’t rule out the possibility of more changes still to come. Holdovers from the previous regime aren’t guaranteed to still be there next fall, and even those in coaching roles aren’t set in stone yet either.
Speaking of which…
4)Ducharme Isn’t A Lock to be Back
Hughes and Gorton managed to sidestep most of the questions surrounding the future of current head coach Dominique Ducharme in Montreal on Wednesday. That being said, there were some interesting tidbits that dropped which don’t exactly scream “ringing endorsement” for the coaching staff:
Make no question about it, anytime a new GM comes in, their preference is usually to surround themselves with “their people”, coaching staff included. So regardless of where Montreal currently finds itself in the standings, Ducharme is going to be under the microscope with no guarantee how much longer he’ll be in the role.
The early stages are likely to be a feeling out process as Hughes & Co. do their due diligence on what their existing coaches/scouts believe this team should look like moving forward. “I think from there, obviously, (Hughes) is going to need some time to get to know everyone and then from there looking ahead and planning on what we want to do for the rest of the season and further on,” Ducharme said.
Gorton had previously stated that Ducharme’s job was safe for the remainder of the season, but things can change in a hurry in the world of professional sports (look at the NFL’s New York Giants who told the media HC Joe Judge would be back in 2022 only to fire him a little over a week later).
Perhaps it’s as simple as this though: 2021-22 is already a lost season for the Habs. Their best players have been injured and they’re fielding a quasi-AHL team out there most evenings. There’s no rush to make a coaching change right away, playoffs aren’t happening regardless of who’s standing behind the bench.
However from a dollars and cents standpoint, Ducharme just inked a 3 year $5.1M contract extension after last year’s Cup final run. The team is also paying Claude Julien $5M to sit at home this season after he was relieved of duties last year. With Julien’s contract coming off the books at season’s end, if there was going to be a time where Ducharme could see the axe fall, it’s more likely than not going to come this offseason.
5)Hughes Believes Analytics Will Play a Role in Roster Construction
Everyone remembers the scene in Moneyball where the old scouts are sitting around the table telling Brad Pitt about all the “eyeball tests” that players don’t pass, and how Jonah Hill’s advanced stats mean nothing in baseball. Well hockey really isn’t that different from baseball in that regard.
By and large, teams either fully embrace analytics, or treat them like voodoo, not to be trusted. Hughes seems to be a centrist in this regard. He values the things that advanced analytics can show you, but doesn’t take them as gospel. Hughes re-affirmed this belief on Wednesday:
By the sounds of it, Montreal will have a dedicated analytics department under Hughes’ regime, but will counterbalance that with what their hockey ops department is seeing on the ice themselves. As a former player agent, Hughes undoubtedly is well versed himself in advanced analytics as he would have routinely used them in contract negotiations for his clients.
After all, it’s easy to negotiate for the likes of Crosby, McDavid, etc. You just tell the team “write the biggest cheque you can, he’s worth it”. It’s far more complicated to prove the value of a 3rd line centre who excels in the faceoff circle, and on the penalty kill but only tallies 15pts a year. That’s where you’d better believe Quartexx was digging up every obscure stat they could to prove why their client deserved a bigger day.
With a balanced approach, Montreal is banking on their ability to not only acquire undervalued assets at this year’s trade deadline, but also better develop their own prospects moving forward as well.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner