MONTREAL — We didn’t expect Jeff Gorton’s media availability to be any more revealing than a séance with JoJo Savard, so we weren’t disappointed when it wasn’t.
A little over 24 hours from the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft kicking off isn’t the time to start spilling state secrets.
Still, Montreal Canadiens fans should feel reassured by one thing that came out of Thursday’s 12-minute session with Gorton: He confirmed his commitment to the long-term plan he and general manager Kent Hughes have to turn this team into a perennial contender in due time.
When the executive vice-president of hockey operations was asked about the pressure to immediately build on the team’s ahead-of-schedule arrival in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, he essentially said he wasn’t feeling it.
“We’re going to make decisions that fit into what we set out to do, which was to build a team that has the ability to compete every year for a long period of time,” Gorton said. “We’re not going to do anything to stunt that just to move it forward five per cent. We’ll stay with the plan. The hope is that we continue to grow and we’re better, but we’ll see what happens.
“This is a big weekend for us, and it’s a big summer for us, but we’re not going to do anything that's stupid.”
Gorton was one of several executives from around the league speaking on Thursday about how market dynamics — an exponentially rising salary cap, after years of stagnation, putting a cluster of teams in buy-mode and leaving very few sellers — are making it challenging to do anything at all.
Just a couple of hours before Gorton gave his tight-lipped briefing, Columbus Blue Jackets president of hockey operations and general manager Don Waddell said, “Right now, there seems to be a shortage of players because everybody wants players for players … It's been a different year for, I gotta be honest with you, all my years that I've been doing it.”
Waddell’s first GM job in the NHL was with the Atlanta Thrashers. He was hired in June of 1998.
Parity was a fantasy back then. Not so much now, with much tighter gaps in the standings and teams emerging from rebuilds as the cap is rising from $88 million this past season to $95.5 million this summer, on its way to reaching $113.5 million by the summer of 2027.
It’s changed the business considerably.
“You generally see teams that are trying to move money and do certain things,” said Gorton. “You’re not seeing as much of that as we usually see.”
You’re still seeing some of it, but it’s taking on a different form.
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The Edmonton Oilers had to trade Evander Kane and his $5.125-million cap hit to free up space earlier this week, and they still were able to fetch a fourth-round pick from the Vancouver Canucks for doing so. Days before that, the Dallas Stars had to clear Mason Marchment’s $4.5-million salary, and they landed third- and fourth-round picks from the Seattle Kraken.
It was just last summer, with the cap barely increasing and future projections of it increasing significantly still months away, the Canadiens were given a second-round pick by the Blue Jackets to take Patrik Laine and his $8.7-million cap hit. Three years ago, with the cap locked and the league emerging from the pandemic, the Canadiens got a first-round pick from Calgary to take Sean Monahan’s $6.3-million cap hit.
Times have changed. Dramatically.
Another sign of it: JJ Peterka — 23 years old and a rising star — went from the Buffalo Sabres to the Utah Mammoth for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan hours before Gorton spoke. These two teams missed these past playoffs, and neither of them were looking to acquire picks or prospects in a trade with each other.
It’s hard to imagine several blockbusters transpiring between now and Sunday.
“I think a lot of teams feel like they’re in play to do certain things,” said Gorton, “and that’s going to cause a logjam.”
Part of that is because it’s causing a devaluation of the currency most typically used by teams attempting to bolster their NHL rosters ahead of — or during — the draft: Picks.
The Canadiens are one of seven teams with multiple first-rounders, and are one of several teams reportedly willing to move at least one for some immediate help.
Would they couple 16th and 17th overall to move up the order?
“We’ve had conversations about that,” said Gorton.
We’d imagine the ones the Canadiens have had about moving down in the first round have a better chance of producing help of any kind.
Teams rarely move out of the top 10, and they almost never do it for a combination of picks of lesser value.
“With 16, 17,” said Gorton, “I think we’d be happy with that.”
It would certainly help the long-term plan, which might be the only thing the Canadiens — and several other teams hoping to push their way up the standings — are able to do this weekend.
Not that Gorton and Hughes will hang their heads in despair and just give up on improving the Canadiens for the here and now.
Gorton just made it clear they won’t force it.
“Listen, when you go into a summer and a situation in where our team’s at, we would obviously like to improve our team. And I think we’ve been pretty vocal about that,” he said. “But I think just as important is not to make a mistake. We have a team that we think is coming together. We think highly of where we’re going, and we think we’re moving in the right direction, but we do want to improve the team.
“But I would say to you that making a mistake and bringing in something that doesn’t fit our timelines, or a player that doesn’t fit in our room, would probably be just as bad as if we went the other way.”
If it goes the way Gorton hopes, the market will shake loose and some players who do fit the Canadiens’ timelines and needs — a bona fide top-six forward is a priority — will be available via trade.
If not, free agency looms.
