Stu Cowan: A very successful day for Canadians GM Kent Hughes

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Canadiens GM Kent Hughes said he wasn’t going to hold a fire sale at the NHL trade deadline.

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Instead, it was more like a garage sale and he was able to get a very impressive return for what he sold.

Hughes traded defenseman Brett Kulak to the Edmonton Oilers, forward Artturi Lehkonen to the Colorado Avalanche and goalie Andrew Hammond to the New Jersey Devils. Kulak can become an unrestricted free agent this summer, Lehkonen can become a restricted free agent, and Hammond wasn’t going to play much after the return of Jake Allen from injury.

In return for those three players, Hughes got a conditional second-round pick at this year’s NHL Draft, a second-round pick in 2024, a seventh-round pick in 2024, defensemen Justin Barron and William Lagesson, and forward Nate Schnarr.

Like I said, impressive.

It’s even more impressive when you factor in what Hughes was able to get from two earlier trades. The GM sent Tyler Toffoli to the Calgary Flames last month in exchange for Tyler Pitlick, 20-year-old forward prospect Emil Heineman, a conditional first-round pick at this year’s draft and a fifth-round pick in 2023, and then dealt Ben Chiarot to the Florida Panthers last week in exchange for 20-year-old forward prospect Ty Smilanic, a first-round pick in 2023 and a fourth-round pick this year.

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The Canadiens now hold 14 picks for this year’s NHL Draft, slated for July 7-8 at the Bell Center, including two in the first round, two in the second, three in the third and three in the fourth. They also hold two first-round picks next year, plus all the prospects Hughes has picked up.

The Canadiens also have young rising stars in Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Alexander Romanov.

The key player Hughes acquired Monday is Barron, a first-round pick (25th overall) by the Avalanche in 2020. That’s the same year the Canadiens drafted defenseman Kaiden Guhle 16th overall. Barron and Guhle — both 20 — were paired together on the blue line when Team Canada won silver at the 2021 world junior championship.

Schnarr, 23, was Suzuki’s teammate with the Guelph Storm when they won the OHL championship in 2018-19 and went to the Memorial Cup. Schnarr was the leading scorer for the Storm that season, posting 34-68-102 totals in 65 regular- season games. The Storm acquired Suzuki late that season from the Owen Sound Attack.

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Lagesson is a 26-year-old defensive defenseman who can become a restricted free agent this summer.

Hughes said it wasn’t an easy decision to trade Lehkonen from a management standpoint and also for what the 26-year-old meant to the other players in the locker room. But Lehkonen’s stock will never be higher than it is now during a career season and Hughes took advantage of that, deciding to sell high. In exchange, the GM got a second-round pick and a highly rated defense prospect who shoots right, something the Canadiens lack and will need even more if Hughes is able to trade Jeff Petry this summer.

Hughes tried to trade Petry — who has asked to be moved for family reasons — but said he couldn’t make a deal Monday that made sense to the Canadiens. Hughes came close to trading the injured Shea Weber and the four seasons remaining on his contract with a $7,857 million salary-cap hit, but that’s another thing he’ll have to revisit this summer.

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In the meantime, the future is looking much brighter for the Canadiens — especially since Martin St. Louis was hired last month to replace Dominique Ducharme as head coach. That’s the best move Hughes has made so far.

“At that point in time (coaching change) we kind of felt like we were pretty far away,” Hughes said about his plan to remake the Canadiens. “A lot of players have been better. So I think if we can make moves to improve our team and improve our competitiveness earlier and quicker, we’re going to do that.”

Hughes noted it’s impossible to draw up an exact plan of what will happen with future moves, but said: “We’re going to continue to talk. I think conversations can lead to opportunities and we’re going to have a lot of conversations. There’s no question that we can do better with a new coach and we’re going to try to give him the players to be successful as soon as we can.”

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What will Hughes’s message be to the remaining members of the team after his trade-deadline moves?

“It will be what the message has been from the minute we announced Marty,” Hughes said. “We’re not here to roll over and finish dead-last and try to get the first pick this year, next year. We’re going to try to improve this team and put ourselves in a position to compete on a sustainable basis.

“These guys are pros and they’ve been through it,” Hughes added. “They understand that when you’re in last place you might take a step backwards in order to take a step forward.”

The Canadiens took a big step forward on Monday.

Call it a very successful garage sale.

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