Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

Center: Kent Hughes ready to start the season with Dach and Newhook

Originally posted on Dose.ca | Last updated Jul 1, 2025 5:17 PM ET

Kent Hughes is working hard to improve the team. On Friday, he acquired Noah Dobson and earlier today, he traded Logan Mailloux for Zachary Bolduc.

That doesn’t solve the problem of the second center, but it’s not going to be solved at any cost, in all likelihood.

Centers are worth a lot. You know, when Christian Dvorak is worth $5.4 million… At about 2:25 p.m., the GM of the Canadiens began his press briefing and said he was ready to start the season with what he has at center. He’s still working the phone, but he’s confident with Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook.

“It was always via trade over free agency that we’d attempt to improve at center. We haven’t done it yet. We’re ready to start the season with what we have, but we’ll continue to work the phones.”-Kent Hughes.

– Eric Engels (@EricEngels) July 1, 2025

The boss insists that it’s through trades that he wanted to improve, not via the free agent market.

So forget Mikael Granlund in Montreal. He’ll cost too much anyway, and in recent years we’ve seen many teams overpay for free agents. This is not Kent Hughes’ plan, I assure you.

If the season were to start today, here’s what the Habs’ forward lineup would look like:

Slafkovsky-Suzuki-Caufield

Demidov-Dach-Laine

Bolduc-Newhook-Anderson

Blais-Evans-Gallagher

The central line isn’t bad, but obviously, acquiring Jordan Kyrou would have put everyone in the right chair. Let’s not forget that Michael Hage could come to Montreal at the end of the season, too.

He may not have found his second center, but he still has all summer to do so. Let’s remain patient, then, and that doesn’t mean Martin St-Louis will actually start the season with Dach in his top-6.

This article first appeared on Dose.ca and was syndicated with permission.

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