MONTREAL — If you’re hoping for a big splash, we regret to inform you Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes won’t be making one in the unrestricted free-agent pool.
Not that you should want him to go cannonballing into those waters. This year, they’re barren of the type of difference-makers Hughes is after, and throwing more money over more term than players in there are worth isn’t his M.O.
Especially not with a young, upstart Canadiens team coming off an appearance in the Eastern Conference Final; a team not looking to block the premium talent and depth coursing through its pipeline.
It's set to arrive soon in Montreal, even if some of it won’t be here come noon on July 1.
But if you sign a Brandon Duhaime, then you likely won’t have space for a Florian Xhekaj sooner than later, and that isn’t the plan here — even if the Canadiens could use some beef on the wing.
They won’t convince the 29-year-old, six-foot-two, 210-pound, soon-to-be-former Washington Capital to take a one-year deal as a placeholder for Xhekaj when he could be mainstay somewhere else. There aren’t a lot of Duhaimes on the market, so this one is going to take advantage of that.
There’s only one Mason Marchment out there — a 50ish-point, six-foot-five, 212-pound winger who plays mean — and we suspect the Canadiens would be more than willing to satisfy his contract demands.
But they aren’t the only team willing to do that, and sources suggested late on Tuesday afternoon that the 31-year-old has his eyes set on another.
That leaves little else of appeal via this avenue for the Canadiens, though it was never the one they were running down to make themselves better for both the immediate and long-term future.
Trade is the avenue of choice, and sources from around the league have said Hughes is pushing extremely hard to make it a rewarding one, which we made note of that last week.
That was after Hughes said, “I’m confident we’re going to be able to do something.”
The GM had just traded up in the first round of the NHL Draft to select pugnacious pugilist Gleb Pugachyov 26th overall, and he said it was just a matter of time before he’d make another move.
“I can’t tell you when, but I feel like we’re in a position to do it,” Hughes said. “We’ll just do it when it makes sense.”
Were it completely up to him, it would be done already.
But, as Hughes explained, “When you’re buying, the seller controls.”
“When I got here, we were selling, and so we controlled the timeline on things,” Hughes continued. “When you’re buying, you just have to keep calling and keep calling. That’s what we’ve done in the past when we’ve made the trades that we’ve made. I might get frustrated, but I’m not going to stop calling.”
Not until a top-six forward or top-four defenceman — or both — lands either Wednesday, Thursday, the middle of August, the end of November, or right before the 2027 NHL trade deadline.
Hughes could (and likely will) do a bit of selling in the interim, too. He traded Brendan Gallagher to Vancouver on Monday, and that was hours before deciding to not tender Joe Veleno a qualifying offer to allow the depth centre to pursue unrestricted free agency, and those moves still left 12 forwards on the Canadiens’ roster and little space for Xhekaj, Owen Beck and Jared Davidson — who are all NHL hopefuls — to fill.
So look for him to potentially clear some up.
Hughes also has young defencemen pushing their way up a loaded depth chart on defence, so something could shake loose there.
And while Samuel Montembeault is under contract with the Canadiens for one more year at $3.15 million, his place on the team is anything but assured. Hughes could hold the goaltender and buy Jacob Fowler more development time in the American Hockey League, but the player wants a chance to redeem his value ahead of his next contract and Hughes could just as easily ship him out west to give him that opportunity in short order.
We don’t think the GM is scared to leave Montreal’s net to 25-year-old Jakub Dobes and Fowler, though nothing’s imminent on that front.
Still, that could change instantaneously.
You could say the same of a contract extension for Ivan Demidov, who led all NHL rookies in scoring this past season. We don’t know that he’ll have an extension on the first day he’s eligible to sign one (Wednesday), but we wouldn’t strike the possibility it could come together quickly.
Either way, we don’t expect the process between the Canadiens and Demidov will be anywhere near as drawn out as it was with Lane Hutson (who could’ve signed last July but only ended up signing last October).
Dobes, the goaltender who finished in fourth place in the Calder Trophy race, is also able to extend as of Wednesday. But that negotiation could take a little bit longer to settle than the Demidov's, given Dobes’ status as a 2027 restricted free agent who’s arbitration eligible.
We don’t expect either of their deals to come through on July 1. And barring a trade or two, that’ll be just part of the reason it’s a quiet day in Montreal.
Because Hughes isn’t making huge waves in the free-agent pool.
