Kent Hughes: 'The Noah Dobson trade doesn’t change our salary structure'

1. Hughes was asked what Dobson’s new contract meant for his salary structure. After all, he’s the first player in the HuGo era to sign a pact bigger than Nick Suzuki’s… even though, theoretically, it was Mathieu Darche who got Dobson to sign that pact (so he’d get the eighth year) before immediately trading him to Montreal.

And the Habs GM jokingly defended himself with this argument. After all, in the NHL’s official record, he still hasn’t signed another player to a contract higher than Suzuki’s, hehe.

On a more serious note, Hughes explained that this contract doesn’t actually change the structure for one simple reason: the other big contracts he had his players sign were pacts that followed the player’s entry-level contract.

Dobson, on the other hand, is on his third contract… and that’s not the same game. A third contract buys more years of autonomy than a second contract.

So you have to wonder whether Lane Hutson, for example, can forget about a world in which he’ll earn more than Nick Suzuki. That said, there’s also the reality of a skyrocketing salary cap that could unbalance this structure.

2. The GM was asked about his next objectives, and he admitted that he is still active in trying to find solutions at forward. We know that the right-handed defenseman position was a weakness, but the forward group also needs a boost.

Could Jordan Kyrou, who the Habs are interested in, be part of the solution?

3. Hughes is confident that despite the acquisition of Noah Dobson (and the fact that Lane Hutson is likely to return to the left), there will be enough ice time for his top three left-handed defensemen. After all, when a brigade relies on Hutson, Kaiden Guhle and Mike Matheson, that’s three solid left-side defensemen capable of eating up minutes.

The GM even thinks it will be a good thing to be able to reduce the ice time of guys like Matheson and Hutson, who have played a lot of minutes this year.

Whether Matheson’s future lies in the city is still open to question, but the GM seems confident that it will be possible to get all these guys to cohabit. But let’s face it, he wasn’t going to say otherwise, you know.

4. The GM also talked about his acquisition du jour, Noah Dobson. He says he jumped at the chance to get his hands on such a special talent, and that he’s happy to have him in town. Not surprisingly, he expects him to play a big role.

That said, he also talked about Dobson’s 2024-25 season, a tougher one for the defenseman in which he collected just 39 points. However, the GM doesn’t seem to be too worried about it: he’s talked to a lot of people and is confident that the whole thing was mostly an anomaly.

For him, the real Noah Dobson is the player we saw a few years ago.

5. Finally, Hughes also noted that he thinks a guy like Dobson will help his club attract forwards to town. After all, he’ll lend credibility to the hockey operation in Montreal, and the idea of playing with such a talented defenseman who’s also good at moving the puck is something that might interest a forward.

If not this summer, then in the years to come… but clearly, the GM likes his chances of his new defenseman being a “talent magnet”.

Extension

Remember that tomorrow, the Habs will have nine picks to use in the final six rounds of the draft. And, inevitably, we have to wonder if all those picks will be used.

But the important thing today was the acquisition of Noah Dobson… and once again, Went Wughes can say mission accomplished.