Kent Hughes possibly made his first damaging mistake with the Montreal Canadiens

He has been excellent.

However, even more so after Friday afternoon's press conference, it is realized that there is a case that seems to have been really mismanaged.

According to several reports, the Habs' executives allowed Sean Monahan to play injured in Calgary and Vancouver. Let's remember that he was literally wearing a protective boot off the ice before putting on his skates.

Finally, as we know, the worst happened and Monahan has been absent since.

In the last few hours, many experts have severely criticized this decision by the Canadiens' management.

Knowing Monahan's tendency to get injured and knowing the value he could have on the trade market (possibly a 2023 first-round pick), he probably should have been better protected.

The organization could have been more cautious.

As Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette mentions, this bad decision may have cost the Montreal Canadiens a valuable first-round pick.

And as my colleague Vincent Fournier mentions, "here, we are talking about a missed opportunity directly related to the management of a case by Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton."

Cowan is categorical: the Canadiens' general manager made a costly mistake in the way he handled the Monahan case.

Well, now that that's been said, the Hughes/Gorton duo simply needs to learn from this situation (and this mistake).

It is important to mention here that we are not criticizing them, because they have been doing an exceptional job since their arrival with the Habs.

They have already made several very good moves (many more than bad). We want to emphasize this point.