Montreal Canadiens Lock Up Management Core

Montreal Canadiens Extend Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton

What It Means

Both Hughes and Gorton were in the final years of their previous deals. Despite Kent Hughes holding the official title of general manager, he and Gorton have worked in unison over the last several seasons. Hughes uses his expertise as a former player agent in contract negotiations, while Gorton handles the business side. Montreal fans have come to adore their new management duo due to the influx of talent, combined with the team-friendly deals they have brought into the organization long-term.

HuGo, as they’ve become known, hired head coach Martin St. Louis. Despite having no pro coaching experience, they felt confident in his abilities as a leader and mentor for the young group of Canadiens. This move has paid dividends as St. Louis is now a highly-regarded head coach around the league.  They’ve since surrounded him with young talent such as Ivan Demidov , Lane Hutson, and Juraj Slafkovsky, amongst others. They are coming off a massive offseason, which included trading for Zachary Bolduc and Noah Dobson.

Montreal fans should be ecstatic that their management group will be around for the next half-decade. After many successful contract negotiations, the Canadiens management finally got paid themselves.