Is Kent Hughes a good GM?

[StreetHawk]

A lot of GMs come in for rebuilds and look good until they pivot to trying to win. The marketing stops working at that point.

Hughes' moves are a mixed bag at this point but we won't have a real evaluation until the team tries to win.

Pretty spot on. Can't judge any of Verbeek, Grier, Davidson, etc. until they hit that pressure point (and they might have now) of needing to turn the ship around. Once you go into the season with expectations of PO, that's when you need to have results. Right now, results don't matter as much as player development. But, when they do, and people's jobs are on the line, then you need to get it done or the team will bring in someone else to try.

 

[Bouboumaster]

he's slightly above average and that's pretty good in a league full of GM's who usually harm their team more then help it.


probably around the 10th to 15th best GM?

I'd say this

His one, truly bad move was not picking Michkov

 

[Voight]

Average at best. To tear down a team isn't all that difficult, he hasn't made any trades that you would call a home run.

The true test will be the next couple of years when he tried to make the Habs a playoff team.

 

[Frank Drebin]

hard to say

Toffoli for first (mesar) and heineman

Charoit for first, which was flipped with a second for newhook


Lehkonen for barron and a second

Kulak for a second (hutson)


romanov for dach

Petry/poehling for matheson and 4th


Monahan for first

Helped facilitate karlsson trade for a second. (Petry)



Monahan to jets for first. Trade up for hage

Laine plus second for harris


Left out a lot of meh moves that probably won’t move the needle

Passing on mickhov seems like low hanging fruit but i think there is more to it than that.

Overall i think he’s made some shrewd moves and i like what he’s done

Obviously he didn’t plan on dach getting hurt for a year, he was looking pretty good before that

Lehkonen trade a loss

Newhook is looking not great, didn’t care for the trade at the time, but the 31overall pick and a second isn’t extremely high value

I still like the slaf contract
Love the hutson, demidov, hage picks. Only demidov was “our” pick

Monahan x2 and laine huge wins

Toffoli trade looking ok

So id say yes, he’s a good gm who has a plan

Not going to win them all but at least he’s not doing anything stupid

 

[Hunter368]

Slightly better then average job so far IMO, but depending how some of his draft picks & big contract signings turn out......that rating will either increase or decrease. What he's done so far is the easy part of a rebuild, the hard part is yet to be seen and thats contracts, player development, drafting results when the Habs are bad getting good picks and the hardest part is finding gems in late rounds as the team becomes a playoff team and your draft picks become much worse.

 

[Xspyrit]

Not picking Michkov was a choice.

He was a perfect player for that market.

Apparently he didn't want to play for certain markets. He wanted to go to Philly

Lehkonen for Barron.

That deal ends up as Lehkonen for Alexandre Carrier and Michael Hage

selection of Mesar

I live in Montreal so I do listen to the BPM radio and I have heard that complaint several times. Not sure why people dislike it?

the laine trade has worked out well.

How? Because of the PP goals? Yes that's nice and it gets a lot of mediatic attention but he has been terrible at ES (both raw and advanced stats), makes 8.7 AAV and is already a major distraction.

 

[NyQuil]

Apparently he didn't want to play for certain markets. He wanted to go to Philly

That didn’t stop Sault Ste Marie from drafting Gretzky. It didn’t stop Quebec from drafting Lindros.

 

[dirtydanglez]

Apparently he didn't want to play for certain markets. He wanted to go to Philly



That deal ends up as Lehkonen for Alexandre Carrier and Michael Hage



I live in Montreal so I do listen to the BPM radio and I have heard that complain several times. Not sure why people dislike it?



How? Because of the PP goals? Yes that's nice and it gets a lot of mediatic attention but he has been terrible at ES (both raw and advanced stats), makes 8.7 AAV and is already a major distraction.

he's a point per game cap dump. how picky do you have to be.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

He’s made good trades when he’s been used as a cap dump partner (Monahan, Laine).

His roster building moves (Dach, Newhook) have not worked out.

Hes done more good than bad overall and had a hell of a mess to clean up but until the Habs start to not suck it’s hard to say he’s a good GM

 

[Maitz]

I live in Montreal so I do listen to the BPM radio and I have heard that complain several times. Not sure why people dislike it?

At that rank there was much better option than a 5'9-5'10 players that doesn't bring much, to me he is either a 2nd player or a europe league player but that's my opinion

 

[Xspyrit]

Going to end up like Ott with Chabot in year 5 and Tkachuck in year 4 of their max term deal before they make it. Then you have to decide whether to commit max term again when they are 30 or something.

There's a need for a giant asterisk next to Ottawa. Melnyk decided to tear 100% of the team apart and hired a yes man for it. Result : Sens were stuck with the worst GM in NHL history (I'll argue anyone who says the opposite) and the nicest guy but worst head coach possible in DJ Smith.

It took a death and a team sale for things to start changing. AFAIK, Montreal is not stuck with the worst trifecta in history (Owner/GM/Coach)

Lehkonen trade a loss

How? Alexandre Carrier and Michael Hage, I'd say it's a pretty good haul in the end

You want to know what is a loss for a similar player? Ryan Dzingel was 26 y/o and had 22 goals 44 pts in 57 games when Dorion traded him for two 2nd round picks and Anthony Duclair. Dzingel was a top skater, fun and exciting player but not a long term reliable Top-6 forward, it was a great timing to trade him and the return looked like a homerun.

But then, Dorion traded one of the 2nds for Matt Murray which is okay in itself but immediately gave him a super risky 4 years x 6.25 AAV contract, which became an anchor (later had to trade a 3rd and a 7th to get rid of 2 years at 75%). Used the other 2nd to acquire Derek Stepan who was already in a big decline for 2 years. Stepan had a 6.5 AAV year left and Ottawa paid a 2nd... Look at Monahan and Gostisbehere trades in comparison. Finally, he let Anthony Duclair walk as a RFA after he scored 31 goals in 87 games for Ottawa. Some would say "yeah but Duclair wanted too much". I don't think he wanted to moon considering his trade history at a young age, but Dorion chose to give Chris freaking Tierney 2 years at 3.5 AAV

That's how you lose trades. Kent Hughes is not doing that, more the opposite.

That didn’t stop Sault Ste Marie from drafting Gretzky. It didn’t stop Quebec from drafting Lindros.

Yeah but I think it's normal for teams to pass on incoming headaches. What did the Coyotes get for Wheeler? And what did the Flames get for Fox?

he's a point per game cap dump. how picky do you have to be.

It's not being picky, most of the game is played at 5 on 5. For now it's great that he's like a "designated hitter" for the PP but at 8.7 AAV you expect an offensive forward to be PPG, or close. Laine being a skilled/productive forward has never been in doubt.

At that rank there was much better option than a 5'9-5'10 players that doesn't bring much, to me he is either a 2nd player or a europe league player but that's my opinion

2nd player? You meant 2nd line forward? Not sure but that's not bad to get a potential Top-6 forward at 26th OA.

I don't think there was a lot of "much better option", who do you have in mind?

 

[Frank Drebin]

That didn’t stop Sault Ste Marie from drafting Gretzky. It didn’t stop Quebec from drafting Lindros.

That’s gretzky and lindros

 

[NyQuil]

That’s gretzky and lindros

Michkov was considered the only guy in Bedard’s tier.

 

[thebestnic]

Average at best. To tear down a team isn't all that difficult, he hasn't made any trades that you would call a home run.

The true test will be the next couple of years when he tried to make the Habs a playoff team.

Monahan trades were home runs

 

[Do Make Say Think]

More yes than no but not by a lot

 

[Breakers]

Giving away kovacevic was beyond insane

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Monahan trades were home runs

Even Pierre Dorion, one of the worst GMs ever, had a few home run trades.

A GM's measure is how good the team is/has improved.

Dach, Newhook and to a lesser extent Laine are busts. Spending assets to acquire bad players is not great.

 

[Moose Head]

could have used it draft a good player. nazar is having a great rookie season in the ahl, 24pts in 21 games.

The Habs inquired about Dach, and the Hawks required a higher pick than the one the habs offered and they didn’t want Romanov. Hughes went out and acquired the pick needed to get the player he coveted, Dach. Using the #13 was never a consideration. It was essentially a three team trade so the Habs could get Dach.

As for nazar, the habs wanted a big center for Romanov. They likely wouldn’t have picked Nazar.

 

[Frank Drebin]

Michkov was considered the only guy in Bedard’s tier.

i think the teams weighed their options and decided the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze


I don’t think his trade value would be very high if he was still in russia today demanding to be traded to a very short list of nhl cities. Kinda like the Adam fox situation. Better off drafting and developing your own guy

 

[Canadiens Ghost]

No GM is perfect but so far, I'm pleased with what Hughes has done overall.
As for Michkov, if they draft him, they don't draft Demidov so not much of a difference for now on that front. Time will tell.

 

[HabsQC]

Votes YES but :

The question is almost impossible to answer because he's forming a pair with Jeff Gorton. They have the GM/PoHo titles but they are making all the big decisions together.

With that being said I'm a big fan of his tenure so far. To me Dach, Newhook and Barron were decent gambles, just didn't turn out the way we expected, but I'm not upset at all with those moves.

I'm a little upset with moving Kovacevic (who we got on waivers) for peanuts, seeing how good he does now, but at the time it happened it was a nothing move.

The one that upsets me the most is not drafting Michkov. I've been told on the Habs board that you need a player like Reinbacher more than you need a Michkov to win a SC. Reinbacher got unfortunately hurt for the year in training camp, so I'll give him time, but Michkov is looking like a beast right now and I think time will prove that he was the right pick.


On the positive side you got :

- Monahan trades were excellent, got paid a 1st to take him and got a 1st to unload him, pure genius.
- Got paid a 2ns to take on Laine and he's looking good so far
- Drafting Hutson in the 2nd round is a home run
- Getting Caufield and Slaf to sign for less than Suzuki
- Getting a 1st for Toffoli, Chiarot
- Also got Heineman for Toffoli who's playing solid hockey for a rookie
- Getting a 2nd for Kulak, Lehkonen
- Unloaded Hoffman and Pitlick in the Karlsson to Pittsburgh saga and even got picks out of it

This front office is just playing their hand smartly. They just didn't get the chance to draft a first tier player so far and no big UFA wants to come to MTL either for multiple reasons.

 

[StreetHawk]

For Hughes what and when does he need to meet expectations where there are going to be consequences.

That is the barometer for any GM if bad or rebuilding teams.

Has to come a time be it the 26, 27, 28 PO that he’s expected to have built up the Habs to qualify for them.

Can’t just be a collection of players. Need to build a team that can win. Won’t draft all the necessary pieces. Will neeed trades and signings as well.

 

[dirtydanglez]

The Habs inquired about Dach, and the Hawks required a higher pick than the one the habs offered and they didn’t want Romanov. Hughes went out and acquired the pick needed to get the player he coveted, Dach. Using the #13 was never a consideration. It was essentially a three team trade so the Habs could get Dach.

As for nazar, the habs wanted a big center for Romanov. They likely wouldn’t have picked Nazar.

and that was a mistake. should have kept 13th when they got it.

 

[Frank Drebin]

and that was a mistake. should have kept 13th when they got it.

The target was dach

He was trending very well until the injury last year. Or at least i thought so

 

[Moose Head]

and that was a mistake. should have kept 13th when they got it.

No, the mistake was not having a crystal ball and predicting he’d destroy his knee after a promising first year with the habs.