The Mind Numbingly Complex Considerations Facing The Habs’ Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes

Ah, to be a fly on the wall and be able to listen in on the conversations going on in the offices of Montreal Canadiens’ Vice President Jeff Gorton and General Manager Kent Hughes. Or maybe not. Doing so might fry my brain’s CPU!

One can only imagine the permutations and combinations of discussions on trade offers, draft pick options, as well as restricted and unrestricted free agent considerations that this managerial tandem needs to decide on both heading into the draft and all the way into the season opener.

This duo often tells the media about their desire to acquire players who possess high hockey IQs, but the thinking that they themselves have to do is pretty 3D-chessy.

Here’s just an immediate list of some of the options that Hughes and Gorton are currently munching on.

They can:

– Simply do nothing other than draft players – which seems highly unlikely.
– Decide how good this draft class actually is and determine whether or not to jettison some of the bevy of picks that they possess and instead stockpile them via trades for future drafts – which they may do here and there. Spreading out some extra picks over the next five years is not that bad an idea. It would give them more flexibility in trades, especially during expensive trade deadlines or help keep the prospect pipeline moving.
– Decide who goes and who stays within 50-man roster limit, given that their cupboards will be overflowing.
– Determine what proactive steps they should take concerning prospects if there indeed is potential expansion in Atlanta in the near future.
– Trade up in the draft using either prospects and/or Montreal’s numerous picks – which most of the media seems to believe will happen.
– Trade some of these picks, plus prospects to immediately shore up the lineup by landing a quality second-line centre and right-hand shooting defenceman – all without somehow breaking the bank. This, too, is a favourite talking point with those covering the Canadiens.
– Explore how any of the above-mentioned options are in line with the team’s immediate and long-term cap considerations and/or how they jive with Montreal’s long-term rebuild plans. Or perhaps,
– Consider the strategy of focusing on landing less expensive “placeholder” players who will be replaced by the team’s prospects three to four years down the road. I really like this particular option.

With all the decisions that have to be made, the potential to make BIG mistakes – franchise-altering ones – is quite considerable.

Not only that, but the vast majority of their decisions will have to be ultimately made based on guesses. The odds of getting everything right seem pretty low. But that is to be expected. The best General Managers are the ones who make more right decisions than wrong ones.

Let’s also keep in mind that while these guesses will be highly informed ones, they need to be garnished with a nice dash of good luck, since players and prospects – especially those who belong to the Montreal Canadiens’ organization can and often do get injured. Thus, backup plans have to be included in the mix.

Managing a hockey team is a very organic, highly intuitive enterprise. Those in charge are not merely moving widgets in or out here. Former GM Marc Bergevin was absolutely right when he sarcastically said that his job was not a simple simulation of PlayStation.

No, Hughes and Gorton live and work in the real world and as such, are currently navigating the good ship Canadiens through dangerous, choppy waters.

Many of the decisions that they make this summer could ultimately lead the Habs to hockey’s promised land or, conversely, have them hit rocks and ruin much of what has incredibly been managed to date. By “ruin,” I mean reverting back to another shipwrecked stay in the land of mediocrity.

Given all that this duo has on their plates, I’m pretty sure that there are a lot of bottles of extra-strength Tums strewn inside the desk drawers of Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton.

Now, since I’m not a fly on the wall, I can’t tell you what the managerial tandem plans to do. One thing that I am certain of though is that they will not digress from their prime directive: To make the Montreal Canadiens a perennial contender.

This has been their mantra from day one.

What this means is that they will not sell off the farm for a short-term burst of relevance. No, this tandem, thankfully, believes in delayed gratification. And, this is how potential, perennial Stanley Cup-calibre teams build their rosters (the Vegas Golden Knights being the exception).

I just can’t imagine Hughes and Gorton pulling Scott Gomez-like moves this summer. And thank goodness!

Montreal fans have gone through a painful rebuild. They have endured multiple decades of mediocrity. A few more years of continued building will give the club’s supporters a decade, perhaps a decade and a half, of genuine contention.

So what does my little pea brain assume that this duo will do, then? The best option for Hughes and Gorton is to make small but meaningful tweaks by bringing in scaffolding players while the core develops. This, along with some savvy trades involving excess prospects and potentially some picks for core-enhancing talent, is what should be done. This is not flashy but it may be enough to keep this club going in an upward trajectory while managing the whims of some of Montreal’s rabid fan base.

This is my guess based on this tandem’s comments to the media and past actions.

For example, when Montreal added Lane Hutson, Patrik Laine, Alex Carrier, and Jakub Dobes to its roster, the Habs got incrementally better. How?

Hutson boosted the Canadiens’ offence, as did Laine. The two reduced the offensive burdens of Montreal’s defence and offence. Likewise, the addition of Carrier reduced the burdens of the Canadiens’ defence while the promotion of Dobes tweaked the Habs’ goaltending situation. The addition of these four players also made life a bit easier for the bottom six of Montreal’s lineup, and thus upped their performances.

All of these moves in totality had a cascading Moneyball-like effect on the Canadiens and allowed the team to squeak into the playoffs much earlier than most of us anticipated.

Given the success of this philosophy, I am going to assume that there will be more cascading measures made by Hughes and Gorton in order to achieve their prime directive.

These moves will be based on their projections of the core of prospects who appear to have the foundational traits required for the construction of a championship-calibre team. And these young players will be incrementally joining the roster over the next three to four years.

Given how Montreal’s management does a fantastic job of keeping their cards close to their vests, everything that I just said is pure speculation. But Moneyball measures would be in keeping with the Habs’ “slow and steady wins the race” style of management. Even so, assessing and acting upon the numerous permutations and combinations that I’ve highlighted here would all have to be factored into the equation. And doing so goes way beyond my pay grade.

One thing that I am certain of though is that the incredibly intelligent tandem of Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton will figure things out. They’ve gotten the Montreal Canadiens this far in such short order. And they’ll do what needs to be done to finish this complex undertaking during this pivotal stage in the Habs’ rebuild.

As for me, I think that I’ve done enough speculative short-circuiting thinking here. It’s time to pop myself an Advil and call this column a wrap.