The Canadiens executed their rebuild almost perfectly

General manager Kent Hughes and the rest of the Montreal Canadiens‘ front office has done a stellar job completely reshaping the team’s roster and cap sheet.

Just five years ago, the Canadiens were in the Stanley Cup Final with a nearly entirely different group of players from the one they have currently. A well-executed rebuild has resulted in the team quickly becoming one of the best young teams in the NHL, and they’ve acted quickly to lock up their key players at reasonable prices.

Monday morning’s Lane Hutson extension means that the reigning Calder Trophy winner joins Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky, Noah Dobson, Cole Caufield and others in forming a core group that will now have the opportunity to go through the growing process together.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Daily Faceoff‘s Jeff Marek to discuss the aftermath of the Hutson deal and what it says about Montreal’s process as a whole.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Everybody’s locked up, and it’s like, are they on the doorstep once again of being a Stanley Cup contender? I think they’ve done a damn near perfect rebuild. What are the lessons here? What did Montreal do so well to basically lap other franchises who are rebuilding at the same time?

Jeff Marek: Great question. I think part of it is luck, and part of it is having a plan. You have to have a plan, but don’t let the concrete harden around it. This is what Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton have had from day one. Sometimes things fall into your lap. The Noah Dobson situation fell into their lap. Lane Hutson fell into their lap. You have to have some good luck along the way… Tyler, like you, I share a lot of optimism for this team. They’re a fun team to watch, too.

Carter Hutton: They are exciting, right? It’s a good time to be a Montreal Canadiens fan when you look at the depth of that core and how long they are locked up for.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…