It's finally Kent Hughes' turn to help Martin St-Louis

Last Saturday, Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis decided to remove veterans Jonathan Drouin and Evgeni Dadonov from the lineup and insert Joel Armia and Juraj Slafkovsky.

If Jonathan Drouin seems to have taken well this withdrawal, it does not seem to have been the same thing for the Russian forward. The latter would have even discussed with the DG Kent Hughes after Saturday's game in addition to missing, funnily enough, Monday and Tuesday's practice.

Questioned about it after practice, St-Louis lost patience with the reporter, definitely not wanting to talk about Dadonov...




It's normal for Dadonov to lose his patience with St-Louis. Not only is he not performing up to expectations, but he's taking a spot from a youngster who could bring a better work ethic than him. Seeing him talk to the GM about his dissatisfaction must not have helped St-Louis' patience either, as he is known to be very transparent with his players.

With the return of Armia and Slafkovsky, St-Louis must be hoping for some help from his GM. Kent Hughes must, with the team now having 15 active forwards in his lineup, take matters into his own hands and free up one, maybe even two spots in his lineup.

Kent Hughes needs to finally help St. Louis, it's his turn.

As we all know, there are many hot potatoes on the CH. Jonathan Drouin and Evgeni Dadonov are among them in addition to Mike Hoffman. The latter is, however, somewhat protected as he has another year left on his contract for next season. This is not the case for the first two.

This trio of veterans could even, in the medium term, cause harm to the rebuilding of the club. St-Louis, having too many forwards, must rely on injuries to rotate his lineup. He doesn't even have the luxury of bringing a deserving youngster from Laval while three forwards are waiting for their turn in Montreal.

If a trade is the best solution here, it's not the easiest option to make. In addition to their performances which are not sublime, they all have heavy contracts.

Which team would really want one of these three players? Even for free in waivers, they would surely not be selected.

Hughes will have to act sooner rather than later, especially if Dadonov continues, as he seems to be doing, to sulk. If a trade is not possible in his case, could Hughes dare to put him on waivers and simply send him home? A bit like the CH did with Georges Laraque when he was in town. This could be a solution, because it would be surprising if Dadonov accepts the breach of contract given that he still has the possibility to pocket several million dollars this season.

Also, don't forget that Hughes will have another headache very soon, this time on defense, when Michael Matheson and Joel Edmundson return. There will certainly be a lot of action on the CH side in the next few days.

It will be really interesting to watch.