Stunning blow for Kent Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens

Kent Hughes built a 106-point team in Year 4 of a rebuild, and the NHL just told him to take a seat. The Jim Gregory finalists were announced Tuesday. His name was not on the list.

The three finalists: Bill Guerin in Minnesota, Chris MacFarland in Colorado, Pat Verbeek in Anaheim. Three respectable choices. None of them rebuilt a roster from the studs and finished sixth overall while doing it.

Let's review the receipts. Montreal went 48-24-10, scored 283 goals, and posted a 24-9-8 road record that almost nobody in the league matched.

Hughes traded for Noah Dobson. He traded for Zachary Bolduc. He signed Alexandre Texier. He brought back Phillip Danault on a deal that came together this season. Every one of those moves stuck.

Then the contracts. Lane Hutson on eight years at $8.85M, and the kid just posted 78 points as a 22-year-old defenseman. Michael Matheson locked in at $6M, with 37 points and a +9 on the season.

The Habs finished sixth overall in the entire NHL. Sixth. In Year 4 of a teardown that most fans were told would take seven or eight years to bear fruit.

The Lane Hutson extension alone should have been enough

How does that resume not get you in the room? Eight years at $8.85M for a 78-point defenseman is the kind of contract rival GMs will be cursing for the next decade.

Cole Caufield hit 51 goals. Nick Suzuki hit 101 points. Juraj Slafkovsky added 73. Hughes built this group, and the voters somehow looked past it.

The Habs are still alive too, currently up 3-1 on Buffalo in the first round with Game 5 on Tuesday. Verdict pending on the postseason. The body of work is already complete.

Maybe the snub lights a fire. Maybe Hughes shrugs and keeps building. Either way, the message from the NHL's voters this week was loud, and Montreal heard it.