MONTREAL — Kent Hughes started his press conference just two hours and 20 minutes after free agency opened on July 1, which was a statement on its own.
With trades completed for Noah Dobson and Zachary Bolduc, and with bargain shopping done for third-string goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen and depth forward Samuel Blais, he was spiking his pen relatively early and confirming the open market wasn’t bearing anything else of interest to him.
Hughes wasn’t done dialling, though, and it doesn’t seem he’s turned his ringer off at any point since.
The GM would like to complete at least one more trade before the season starts, even if he acknowledged that desire could ultimately go unfulfilled.
“The reality is, we’re not going to put the perfect team together over the course of one summer,” he said eight days ago. “I think as we go about doing things, we recognize we have other things we’d like to accomplish. I just don’t see us accomplishing everything all at once.”
Still, we’d bet on the Canadiens’ lineup getting tweaked a bit between now and opening night.
There are holes to fill, there’s cap space to free up, and there’s a lot of time left to get it all done.
DEPTH CHART
Forwards
Cole Caufield-Nick Suzuki-Juraj Slafkovsky
Zachary Bolduc-Kirby Dach*-Ivan Demidov
Brendan Gallagher-Alex Newhook-Josh Anderson
Samuel Blais-Jake Evans-Patrik Laine*
Defence
Kaiden Guhle-Noah Dobson
Mike Matheson-Lane Hutson
Arber Xhekaj-Alex Carrier
Jayden Struble
Goal
Samuel Montembeault
Jakub Dobes
Total Forward Cap Hits: $57.48 million
Total Defence Cap Hits: $25.9 million
Total Goalie Cap Hits: $15.8 million (counting $10.5 going to Carey Price, who’s inactive)
Cap Space Remaining: -$5.4 million
What’s left to do this summer
Find a second-line centre
You might have noticed the asterisk next to Kirby Dach’s name in the depth chart above.
That we even placed his name there speaks to our belief — against popular belief —he might still be able to fill this role, even after two straight seasons ended prematurely by reconstructive knee surgery.
But we know it’s nothing more than a maybe and that the Canadiens would prefer to find a sure bet to play between Bolduc and Demidov.
The problem is that more than half the league is reportedly looking for a second-line centre and it’s hard to identify a single team that wants to offload one.
That could change with time.
But if it doesn’t, we’ll find out just how desperate Hughes is to address this need.
We advanced on Sportsnet’s July 1 free agency broadcast that Evgeni Kuznetsov could be someone he’d turn to as a placeholder, and a move like that would signal a certain level of desperation.
Sure, the 33-year-old Russian produced several of his 37 points in 39 games in Saint Petersburg last winter as Demidov’s KHL centre. And it’s acknowledged he isn’t likely to break the bank after not playing in the NHL since the 2024 playoffs.
But Kuznetsov would be anything but a sure bet to adequately fill in as a second-line centre, and we think there’d have to be almost no other viable alternatives available to the Canadiens for them to even plug him in there.
Would they sign Kuznetsov to play lower down their depth chart? We’re not sure of that, either.
But we could see the Canadiens go for a fourth-line centre
They lost Christian Dvorak to the Philadelphia Flyers and could look to replace him with a left-handed centre who can win faceoffs and kill penalties.
If they don’t, Alex Newhook is going to have to embrace a new role. He probably has to, even if they do.
And if they do, Patrik Laine could end up on a different team.
Surely you noticed the asterisk next to the big Finn’s name in our depth chart. It’s there because the Canadiens are already over the cap and he counts for $8.7 million, which is a lot for a player who won’t play much at five-on-five and is, in all likelihood, being bumped to the second power play.
Even if the Canadiens don’t make any more acquisitions, it’s hard to suggest Laine’s an ideal fit on any of their lines. He’d have to look vastly different than he did last season to fit on their second, and if the most likely place for him is on their fourth, he’s blocking out younger players more suited for the role.
Grading the off-season: A-
In Dobson and Bolduc, Hughes picked up two core pieces without sacrificing any from the Canadiens.
Dobson is a six-foot-four, right-handed defenceman who’s 25 and already has a 70-point season under his belt, and Bolduc is a 22-year-old winger who put up 19 goals, averaging under 13 minutes per game in his rookie season last year, and players like them typically cost more than what Hughes gave to acquire them. It was A+ work.
He also wanted to add some edge and experience up front, and got it with Blais, who was a key cog in Abbotsford’s Calder Cup win in the AHL this past spring.
The six-foot-two winger has also played just under 300 games in the NHL (regular season and post-season combined).
Kahkonen has played 140, and he helped the Charlotte Checkers to the AHL final against Blais’ Canucks. The 28-year-old will push Jakub Dobes at training camp but will most likely share the net and serve as veteran support to Jacob Fowler in Laval.
Put all four of these moves together, and they’ve made the Canadiens better. The first two address both immediate and long-term needs, and the last two are more for the here and now.
If Hughes had landed a second-line centre — either as a stop-gap solution or a long-term one — his mark would be an A+.
But hey, there’s still plenty of time…
