While there haven’t been many surprises in the NHL Trophy finalists announced over the course of the last 10 days, I was shocked to see that Montreal Canadiens’ GM Kent Hughes wasn’t a finalist for the Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award. Not that Bill Guerin, Pat Verbeek and Chris MacFarland are not worthy finalists, but it’s hard to imagine what the Montreal Canadiens GM could have done better in the 2025-26 season.
The executive started his summer with a slam dunk, finally acquiring a top-pairing right-shot defenseman at the draft in a deal with the New York Islanders. He had to sacrifice his two first-round picks in the process, but he made another trade with the Chicago Blackhawks to move up in the second round and get the 34th overall pick. With that pick, he drafted Alexander Zharovsky, the player Montreal wanted in the first round.
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Then, on July 1st, he sent right-shot defenseman Logan Mailloux to the St. Louis Blues in return for Zachary Bolduc, a good young player to bring some much-needed depth up front and make some room on the blueline for other prospects.
A few days into the regular season, he signed star blueliner Lane Hutson to an eight-year contract with an $8,850,000 team-friendly cap hit, especially considering how the cap is set to go up in the coming years. That contract will soon become a steal for the Canadiens.
Five weeks later, he smelt a good opportunity when Alexandre Texier’s contract with the Blues was terminated, roughly 10 days after the Canadiens had lost Alex Newhook to an injury. Pleased with the early return on his $1 million investment, the GM signed him to a two-year contract extension on January 14, with a $2.5 million cap hit. The Frenchman finished the season with 20 points in 43 games and has proven more than capable of providing depth scoring in the playoffs.
Just before the Christmas trade freeze, Hughes went out and acquired veteran center Phillip Danault in return for a second-round pick. The Quebecer was struggling with the Los Angeles Kings, but Hughes figured he could use a fresh start at home. He finished the season with 12 points in 45 games, but he has proven invaluable to the Canadiens at the faceoff dot with a 56.2 winning percentage in the regular season. During the playoffs, he has recorded 3 assists in 11 games and maintained a 59.9% success rate on draws.
With those two acquisitions, the GM bolstered his roster and gave it some much-needed depth, even causing respected veteran Brendan Gallagher to be a healthy scratch at the tail end of the season and in the playoffs. A tough decision, but one Martin St-Louis had to make.
Perhaps Hughes’ candidacy was weakened by the fact that he didn’t get any reinforcements at the trade deadline, but the truth of the matter is that he had already gotten some earlier in the season.
Finally, the fact that the young Habs are in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs just four years into their rebuild speaks to how well this team has been put together. Voting for this award was conducted among the NHL general managers and a panel of League executives and media at the conclusion of the First Round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which is why the playoff run should have had an impact. However, the three finalists’ teams have also made it to the second round, which might have helped their own candidacy. I’m looking forward to the winner’s announcement to see how the voting went.
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