Kent Hughes and the Weeks of (Re)Building

The Canadiens have made nine trades since the start of the offseason.

The problem is that none of those nine trades has provided any short-term relief for Martin St-Louis.

Brendan Gallagher—at 50% of his salary—was traded for practically nothing…

Joshua Roy was sent to Utah in exchange for a defenseman who will start the season with the Rocket…

Luke Tuch headed to Columbus, while Hunter McKown joined the Montreal organization…

William Trudeau and Brett Berard were traded for each other…

And Kent Hughes made five trades to move up or down in the amateur draft.

In short, the Canadiens have been active, but not in any significant way. Will they be in the coming weeks?

In the past

In 2025, Kent Hughes made a trade on July 1 (Zachary Bolduc for Logan Mailloux), then remained quiet until September 5 (Carey Price for Gannon Laroque).

In 2024, he didn't make any trades between June 30 (Johnathan Kovacevic to New Jersey) and August 19 (Patrik Laine to Montreal).

In 2023, he was inactive from July 1 (Joel Edmundson to Washington) to August 6 (Jeff Petry returned to Montreal for a few days).

In 2022, he acquired Mike Matheson on July 16, then made another trade on August 18 (Sean Monahan).

In short, Kent Hughes has NEVER completed a trade between July 17 and August 5, inclusive. It's simple: Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes are officially on vacation during those weeks.

Let's call them the (re)building weeks!

Of course, if he gets a call—and then an interesting offer—he'll respond to his messages… but most executives are off right now.

So I'm expecting two VERY
quiet weeks for the Canadiens.

Any pre-scheduled announcements?

To fill the void, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Canadiens make a few pre-scheduled announcements.

In fact, the confirmation of Derek Lalonde's arrival at 10:00 a.m. (sharp) this morning fits that pattern.