The Montreal Canadiens vacant GM position has been filled. The club announced Tuesday that they’ve hired former player agent Kent Hughes to become 18th General Manager in team history. Initial reports indicate that the 51 year old has signed a 5 year deal, though financial terms were not immediately made available.
Despite having a very English sounding name, Hughes is a Montreal native and is fluent in both French and English, something that the club prioritized after bringing in former Rangers executive Jeff Gorton.
In a statement posted to their team website, owner Geoff Molson said “We are very excited to add Kent Hughes to our organization… Kent is highly-respected in the hockey world, having built an excellent reputation as an NHL player agent for over 25 years now.”
Echoing those sentiments, VP of Hockey Operations Jeff Gorton declared “The process of finding our new general manager afforded us the opportunity to meet a number of extremely qualified candidates. Kent stood out, and we believe he is the right person to be the general manager of the Canadiens. We also believe that Kent’s experience as an agent will be a great asset to the organization.”
Hughes graduated from Boston College with a law degree and went on to become a partner in Quebec based player agent firm Quartexx Management. The company has represented players such as Patrice Bergeron, Kris Letang, and Darnell Nurse over the years.
The former NCAA hockey player will certainly have his work cut out for him in Montreal as the Canadiens currently sit dead last in the NHL with a 7-25-5 record. The Habs made a surprise run to the Stanley Cup finals last year before falling to Tampa Bay in 5 games. Now, decimated by injuries and with mounting uncertainty around franchise cornerstones Shea Weber and Carey Price, it appears as though Montreal will be sellers at this year’s trade deadline.
With a likely rebuild ready to begin as early as this season, Hughes will be a popular man as deadline day approaches. Few players outside of Suzuki and Caufield on Montreal’s roster can feel truly safe as March 21st approaches. This will however allow the first time GM to put his fingerprints all over roster construction from the get go.
A press conference to formally welcome the team’s new GM will be held later this week.