Kent Hughes, despite his many successes as general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, seems to have difficulty learning from his mistakes.
After missing the opportunity to trade Josh Anderson when his value was high on the trade market, he repeated the same scenario with Mike Matheson, passing up a golden opportunity to maximize the value of his assets.
These two cases illustrate a worrying trend: Hughes too often delays acting on the transaction market, preferring to keep players whose value is declining instead of capitalizing on their peak performance.
In June 2022, with Anderson creating strong interest on the trade market, Hughes had the opportunity to get a significant return, comparable to that obtained for Tyler Toffoli (first round pick and a B prospect like Emil Heineman).
Rumors suggest that many serious offers were on the table, but the GM opted to keep the forward, believing his value would continue to rise.
Unfortunately, we know the rest. Anderson collapsed and became a real burden. Today, Josh Anderson’s contract is no longer tradable, and teams once interested wouldn’t touch him with a pole today.
Unfortunately, the same scenario repeated itself with Mike Matheson. Last season, the defender was on fire and his name was on everyone’s lips in the transaction market.
Some were even talking about a potential return involving a first-round pick, an established player and a top prospect.
Matheson appeared to be in his prime with incredible playing time. But everyone could see that his “bubble was going to burst.”
But Hughes chose not to move because Martin St-Louis wanted to keep him. Now the situation has taken a worrying turn: Matheson’s defensive deficiencies have become too obvious to ignore, and his value on the trade market has dropped significantly.
Matheson’s defensive shortcomings are now a recurring problem, to the point where some are suggesting he would be more useful as a forward.
Worse yet, he takes the place of Lane Hutson, who should play on the first power play unit.
Matheon makes just as many mistakes in the defensive zone that cost the team dearly, but he is now harmful offensively, shooting at the slightest opportunity on the power play, missing the net by 10 feet.
As long as he holds the position of number one defenseman, the Canadiens will have difficulty containing opposing offenses.
As a result, what could have been a trade that would have accelerated the rebuild became a headache for Hughes, who now has to deal with a player whose reputation is dropping by the day.
Josh Anderson and Mike Matheson, same fight. These two situations prove the weakness of Kent Hughes. By waiting too long to act, he missed opportunities to maximize the value of his players.
In a league where the golden rule is “buy low, sell high,” Hughes did the exact opposite with Anderson and Matheson.
Not selling them when their value was at its peak is unforgivable.
For the Canadiens general manager, this is a costly lesson. If he wants to turn things around, he’ll have to find a way to restore Matheson’s value to the market, while trying to limit the damage from Josh Anderson’s disappointing performance and his stinking $5.5 million per year contract until now. ‘in 2027.
The accolades received for his early moves in the deal market have taken hold, and Hughes now finds himself facing the consequences of his decisions.
Or rather his non-decisions.
We now have to deal with a defender who plays too much, who is harmful defensively and who blocks Lane Hutson.
He is even considered a public danger in the defensive zone.
Kent Hughes will need to quickly review his approach to the deal market if he wants to avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future.
Never two without three?
Misery…
