The Montreal Canadiens are rebuilding, you’d have to live on Mars not to know that, and even then, you probably would. Rebuilds are lengthy exercises and in the early beginnings, there isn’t a lot of winning. Still, to the trained eye, it’s possible to see which way it’s heading.
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The Athletic released its NHL front-office ranking yesterday, and considering where the Habs are at in their rebuild, they didn’t place badly. Who decided who ranked where? I was a voting exercise conducted with 40 NHL executives who couldn’t vote for their own team. The outlet polled general managers, assistant general managers, team presidents, senior advisers and scouting directors who voted for the top five front-offices.
Each time a team for a first, second, third, fourth or fifth round place vote, it received a set amount of points. The Dallas Stars toped the ranking with a whooping 251 points, 64 points in front of second place Tampa Bay Lightning with 187 points and 78 points in front of third place and Stanley Cup Champions Florida Panthers with 173 points.
The only other team who’s over the century mark is the Vegas Golden Knights with 117 points and after that, the points drop significantly. The Canadiens didn’t crack the top 10, but they came awfully close, finishing in 11th place with 13 points. Thanks to one second place vote, one third place and one fifth place one.
Of course, that’s not a lot of votes, but it’s still better than 21 other teams. In the article, the sole quote about the Habs comes from an assistant GM who put them in third place and says:
Kent Hughes doesn’t BS. He just goes about his business. I think they have a good plan.
It’s hard to argue with that statement, the Canadiens’ GM does look like he’s keeping his head down and sticking to the plan, but he does remain on high alert for shortcut opportunities. “Helping” the Calgary Flames by taking Sean Monahan off their hands back in August 2022 was such a move bringing some draft capital. Signing him to a short-term contract and then trading him for more draft capital and maximizing asset value in the process was another.
Just a couple of months ago, Hughes struck again by trading for Patrik Laine. Bringing in a player with his set of skills and NHL experience should have sped up the rebuild, helping his linemates elevate their play to keep up with the big Finn’s skills and vision, but his injury derailed that plan.