Trade Completed Between Canadiens and Blackhawks Rated as Hughes's Worst Since Becoming GM
As we mentioned earlier, the excellent page "PuckEmpire" has, for the past few weeks, been ranking NHL general managers.
Recently, we finally got to Kent Hughes' position, and he ultimately landed in 7th place. According to them, Hughes is therefore the 7th best general manager in the entire National Hockey League.
That said, in addition to revealing Hughes' position in this ranking, they also took the opportunity to highlight some good moves and some less successful moves by the Habs' GM.
His best move, according to them, is the trade made with the Calgary Flames for center Sean Monahan.
His worst move, according to them, is indeed the trade made with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Trade with Chicago involving Kirby Dach: Kent Hughes' Worst, According to Puck Empire
Let's recall that on July 7, 2022, the Montreal Canadiens (after trading Alexander Romanov to the New York Islanders) traded a 1st-round pick and a 3rd-round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Kirby Dach.
The National Hockey League officially treated these two trades as two separate and distinct transactions.
The guys at Puck Empire are therefore judging only the part of this deal with Chicago.
To Montreal:
Kirby Dach
To Chicago:
2022 1st-round pick (Frank Nazar)
+
2023 3rd-round pick (Gavin Hayes)
Kirby Dach
To Chicago:
2022 1st-round pick (Frank Nazar)
+
2023 3rd-round pick (Gavin Hayes)
The fact that the 2022 1st-round pick became Frank Nazar is clearly what stings the Habs here.
Nazar, 21 years old, is a right-handed center drafted 13th overall in 2022 who has 27 points in 56 NHL games, including 13 goals.
He also recorded 24 points in 21 AHL games and truly seems on the verge of breaking out as a dominant NHL center.
And you - do you also believe this is the worst trade made by Kent Hughes so far?
The trade involving Artturi Lehkonen and Justin Barron is another one that doesn't look very good today, but Kent Hughes brilliantly redeemed himself by turning Barron into Alexandre Carrier.
Previously on Montreal Hockey Fanatics
| POLL | ||
AOUT 8 | 1808 ANSWERS Trade Completed Between Canadiens and Blackhawks Rated as Hughes's Worst Since Becoming GM Do you also believe that the trade for Kirby Dach is the worst one made by Kent Hughes? | ||
| Yes | 1145 | 63.3 % |
| No | 663 | 36.7 % |
| List of polls | ||