Kent Hughes reveals exactly when the Habs plan to add the center they need

Kent Hughes made it clear this weekend: the Canadiens are not blowing up a plan that already delivered 106 points.

Speaking on the state of his roster, the Montreal general manager pushed back hard on the idea of a splashy, feel-good trade.

His words were blunt. He wants no part of a move that pleases the fanbase in September and blows up in their face by next spring.

"We won't do a dumb trade or a dumb move that might appease the passionate fanbase on a short-term basis," Hughes said.

And then the kicker: "A year later it's, what the hell did they get us into?"

It is hard to argue with the receipts. Montreal finished 48-24-10 last season, good for 106 points and sixth overall in the league.

The Canadiens played 19 playoff games this spring, a run built almost entirely on players still on their entry-level or bridge deals.

The young core forcing Hughes to stay patient

Nick Suzuki put up 101 points. Cole Caufield scored 51 goals. Lane Hutson, just 22 years old, ran the blue line for 78 points.

Then there is Ivan Demidov, only 20, who posted 62 points in his first full NHL season, and Juraj Slafkovsky, who chipped in 73.

That is the core Hughes is talking about. Rip up part of it now for a rental piece and you are gambling with the exact thing that got Montreal here.

Hughes framed the whole approach as a trust exercise between his front office and a fanbase that has waited a long time for stability.

"We hope that we have their patience to trust that we are going to continue to push this thing forward," he said.

He also shot down any suggestion this is about the salary cap. "We are not trying to save money," Hughes said. "We are not trying to do anything other than make the right next move."

That is a fair thing to say in August. It gets a lot harder to say in March if Montreal is fighting for a wild card spot and the phone starts ringing.

Patience is easy when the record still says 106 points and a deep playoff run. It gets tested the moment the record does not.

Hughes is essentially betting his own job on restraint, on saying no more often than he says yes, in a market that does not always reward restraint.

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That is the trade-off nobody wants to talk about out loud right now, and it is the one Montreal fans should watch closest heading into the fall.

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