Stu Cowan: Canadiens GM Kent Hughes puts his plan into action

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Since taking over as general manager of the Canadiens, Kent Hughes has impressed me as smart, confident and very comfortable with himself and whatever decision he decides to make.

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That was never more apparent than during the first round of the NHL draft Thursday night at the Bell Center.

Hughes has a long-term plan for how he wants to build the Canadiens, along with Jeff Gorton, executive vice president of hockey operations. That’s something former general manager Marc Bergevin never seemed to have.

While Bergevin has big biceps, Hughes showed he has big hockey pucks (you know which part of the anatomy I’m talking about) with the moves he made Thursday night, which may or may not work for the best.

But at least there seems to be a plan, and the GM trusts it. Hughes wants the Canadiens to play fast and skillfully under head coach Martin St. Louis, but he also realized the team needed to get bigger and faster through the middle.

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Heading into the draft, there was talk that Hughes might try to make a trade with the New Jersey Devils to get the second overall pick along with the first pick the Canadiens already had. That would have allowed Hughes to draft center Shane Wright (or Logan Cooley) and leftist Juraj Slafkovsky.

Instead, Hughes took Slafkovsky with the first pick and then made a couple of trades, including sending defenseman Alexander Romanov to the New York Islanders for center Kirby Dach from the Chicago Blackhawks.

Dach, the third overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, is 6-foot-4 and 197 pounds. Wright is 6-foot-6 and 199 pounds, while Cooley is 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds.

Slafkovsky is 6-foot-4 and 229 pounds and could fit nicely in the Canadiens’ No. 1 line with center Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Suzuki is 5-foot-11 and 205 pounds, Christian Dvorak is 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds and the Canadiens have added more size in the middle with Dach.

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“There is certainly an element of size to the game of hockey,” Hughes said. “When we watch the Stanley Cup playoffs every year, especially the playoffs versus the regular season, it’s a very physical and tough brand of hockey. Our game changes a bit. We’re still going to put a premium on skill and speed as part of it.

“There’s not a 5-foot-9 hockey player that scares me,” the GM added. “But 22 of them (on the same team) would scare me. So he’s just trying to find that balance.”

Hughes noted that he couldn’t imagine the Canadiens putting together a lineup in the future that would have the 5-foot-10 Filip Mesar (selected with the 26th overall pick Thursday night) with the 5-foot-9 Sean Farrell ( a fourth-round pick). in 2020) and Caufield, who is 5-foot-7.

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Hughes had a plan to get Dach out of Chicago and then executed two trades to make it work. First, the general manager acquired the 13th overall pick from the New York Islanders in exchange for Romanov and the 98th overall pick, and then dealt out the 13th pick to the Blackhawks, along with the 66th pick, in exchange for Dach. Hughes said it was a “very difficult” decision to trade Romanov, but added that sometimes to get what you want you have to make sacrifices.

Dach is only 21 years old, but already has three seasons of NHL experience with totals of 19-40-59 in 152 games. He was also captain of the Canada team when they won a silver medal at the 2021 junior world championships.

“We were looking to get better, get a little bit bigger, a little bit faster in the middle of the ice if we could,” Hughes said. “There is also in a perfect world an age component so that (Dach) can grow up with our young core and he certainly fits that description for us. We knew he was potentially available, so we spent a lot of time trying to understand who Kirby Dach was. He was the third overall pick. What happened to Kirby Dach? Why is Chicago willing to move it?

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“Obviously they moved some other pretty good players as well (including Alex DeBrincat, who was sent to the Ottawa Senators). Whatever his plan is, it’s none of our business. But in relation to Kirby, we wanted to understand. We talked to many people in and around Chicago associated with the team. Even to the point of talking to (Canadiens defenseman) Justin Barron today. He was with him in the world juniors. Just to make sure we understood who the player was, who the person was.

“Again, I’ve said it all along, we’re going to put money into developing hockey players and trying to make the most of their potential and we think Kirby has significant potential and we think with the Montreal Canadiens, in this environment. , we can bring it in and get it to a point where it can be a pretty special hub.”

This is the plan.

It will probably take a few years to find out if it works.

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