Canadiens: Fans have confidence in team’s management

When Luszczyszyn scored his pole in 2021, the Montreal Canadiens’ hockey operations department was ranked 17th. That was just after the Habs’ improbable Stanley Cup Final run, and in 2022, it fell to 16th, perilously close to the bottom half of their standings. Last season, in 2023, HuGo (yes, GM Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton, the vice president of hockey operations) climbed a few spots in the rankings, to No. 14.

Signatures

Since then, Hughes has signed former first overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky to an eight-year contract extension with a very reasonable cap hit. At $7.6 million in average annual value, the youngster falls just below Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki’s AAV. What that tells me is that Hughes can sell his salary structure to the players. Slafkovsky could have played it tough and held out until his entry-level deal was up. He was, after all, a first overall pick. Instead, he fell through the ranks and agreed with Hughes that it was okay for his salary to be below that of his two linemates, with or without the first-overall tag.

On the blueline, having Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron as restricted free agents this summer gave the GM the opportunity to set a salary structure there as well. With the former being a much more established NHLer, I expected his signing to come first and his AVV to be higher than the latter and it was, but not by much.

Hughes managed to get them both signed to two-year contracts on the same day. Xhekaj was the first to go, raking in $200, so to speak, on a deal worth $2.6 million with an AAV of $1.3 million. Barron’s deal was announced a few hours later. His contract is also a two-year pact and is worth $2.3 million and an AAV of $1.15 million.

This is a spectacular trade from the GM, buying himself more time to reassess how the two defensemen fit into the Canadiens’ blue line once the new crop of defensemen is added to the mix. Should Hughes have to trade either of them, they’re attractive options for other teams with such a low AAV.

Yesterday, the GM signed Kaiden Guhle to a contract extension. It’s a six-year deal with an AAV of $5.55, worth a total of $33.3 million. But more important than the value is the significance of the deal. The defenseman joins Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky as part of the long-term core.

Related: Canadiens: On the Guhle contract…

It shows that Hughes took the time to evaluate his first crop of defensemen and signed the ones he identified as the most efficient long-term. It doesn’t mean Xhekaj, Jordan Harris or Barron can’t ever join the core, but that hasn’t happened so far and the Habs leadership wants to see what the next group of defensemen has in store.

To compose

Last year, when fans filled out the survey, the selection of a right-handed defenseman in what was for them an offensively heavy draft was still fresh in their minds. They were upset that Hughes had passed up Matvei Michkov, they wanted to attack, which is a fairly normal expectation in hockey, and their confidence in Hughes was wavering somewhat.

A year later, the Habs’ top draft pick was Russian forward Ivan Demidov, in addition to acquiring another talented forward in the first round in Michael Hage. The youngster was selected 21st overall after the trade with the Los Angeles Kings moved Montreal up five spots. They were originally listed at 26th overall thanks to the recent Shane Monahan trade in which Montreal acquired Winnipeg’s first-round pick. It’s almost astonishing how Hughes has been able to squeeze every last bit of value out of the former Calgary Flame since acquiring him ahead of the 2022-23 season.

Free agency

In free agency, Hughes had said he wanted to improve his top six, but the lack of term limits on the deals he offered kept him from signing anyone. Still, that’s a positive. How so? Because Hughes didn’t panic. He has a plan in mind and he’s sticking to it. He refused to saddle his team with big contracts for players who would be on the wane of their careers by the time the Canadiens were ready to contend.

In essence, Hughes refused to fall into the trap that Marc Bergevin fell into more than once by giving players who weren’t in their prime in the last few years of their contracts long term terms. This, to me, is a huge factor in the front office’s confidence.

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