I wrote earlier this month that Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes would take an aggressive approach to free agency and that’s exactly what happened. Unfortunately for him, however, the players approached were not buying what he was selling. Failing doesn’t mean you didn’t try and the man in charge was candid about it too. Whenever he can be, the GM is honest with the media and the fans, which goes a long way in increasing his popularity. Here’s my opinion on his first day of free agency and what he said about it.
Hughes Was Aggressive, but Not Crazy
While the Canadiens’ GM wanted to improve his team in the short term, he wanted to do it on his own terms, and those terms were not the ones the players were after. Looking at the money thrown at some of the older players, I can’t help but think some of those contracts will be hurting the teams that signed them sooner rather than later.
Related: Canadiens’ GM Kent Hughes Could Be Aggressive in Free Agency
Nashville Predators GM Barry Trotz was beyond aggressive yesterday; he was like a new millionaire who decided his newfound fortune should be spent at once. A four-year deal worth $32 million for 34-year-old Steven Stamkos, $27.5 million over five years for 33-year-old Jonathan Marchessault, $49 million over seven years for 30-year-old defenseman Brady Skjei and a more reasonable $3 million deal over two years for experienced back-up Scott Wedgewood, Trotz was busy and probably very happy. Still, the question is: for how long?
The problem with three of those four deals has got to be their length. Sure, Stamkos and Marchessault are still productive players, but time waits for no man and eventually, they will slow down. When they do, those price tags will make it impossible (with the Arizona Coyotes having been put down, they won’t be swallowing big contracts to reach the cap floor anymore) to move. The Utah Hockey Club wants to compete and will not be the NHL’s junkyard.
As for those who say the Canadiens didn’t need to sign anyone up front as it would have just kept prospects from moving forward, I disagree. They wouldn’t have been by signing top-six players. The truth of the matter is that right now, the Canadiens do not have NHL-ready prospects who can assume that role consistently. Joshua Roy has shown offensive flair in Laval, but he’s not ready to occupy such a big role in Montreal.
Keeping in mind the Canadiens have repeatedly said they would like to be in the mix longer this season, they needed some help. Drafting Ivan Demidov and Michael Hage will help, in time, but right now, aside from a morale boost, the effect of the draft selection is minimal.
How Hughes Saw His Day
It may be a fairly new GM, but the media are still asking the same old questions when he comes out of free agency before landing any big game. And Hughes saw it coming. When asked about how hard it is to attract free agents to Montreal, he simply replied:
“I’m not worried about attracting people here, quite frankly I think if we were prepared to meet the term of the deals, we would have a player here. My experience representing players is at the end of the day, hockey players are happy when hockey is going well.”
Asked precisely about the Marchessault situation, Hughes could only repeat that the problem had simply been the fact the Canadiens were not willing to give up lengthy contracts. Having seen Marchessault’s interview on RDS’ free agency frenzy coverage, it seems term wasn’t the only issue for him. He also felt that at this point in his career, he didn’t want to be on a rebuilding team. Hughes also had to explain his philosophy once again:
“If we were prepared to match the length of contracts that some of these players were getting, we would have had players here but at the end of the day, we’re sitting here trying to project into the future right and as we’ve said all along, we won’t do something that will provide a short-term gain at the expense of our long-term plan. If we commit too long into the future to a player and we end up blocking young players from moving their way up, then I think we’re doing a disservice to what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Hughes is no fool, he knew what he was offering probably wouldn’t be to everyone’s liking, but he had hoped some of the players would have been willing to buy what he was selling:
“We went into it knowing the odds were long, hoping that we could prevail, and convince people that this was an exciting place to play with I guess inferior financial terms. I’m not worried about that, when we get to the point that we feel it’s time to really do something in free agency and we’re ready to compete in terms of the contract.”
Hughes knew now wasn’t the time to hit a grand slam in free agency, but he was hoping to land one of the big names to help bring his young core along. Want it or not, youngsters need to learn how to win and acquiring a game-breaker, even if only for a year, would have gone a long way towards that.
He also knew he didn’t need to “win” the day, he did not need to raise his offers, he put what he wanted to put on the table and when he realized it wasn’t going to be enough, he got up and walked away from the negotiations’ table figuratively speaking.
In the end, Canadiens’ fans will need to have a little more patience to see Hughes unleash his superior negotiating power in free agency. Until then though, they can see him perform miracles in contract extensions and financial structure building. Perhaps, it doesn’t feel as exciting as attracting a big-name star to town now, but in the grander scheme of things, when their favourite players are still with the team and with a reasonable cap hit, they’ll realize how right the GM was to stick to his guns rather than being robbed (not even blindly) in the bright light of day.
