Report: Habs Down To Three GM Candidates, Waiting On Hughes

The Montreal Canadiens are closing in on their next general manager and if he wants the job, NHL player agent Kent Hughes is a very strong candidate to become the next Habs GM.

On Saturday afternoon, Montreal-based Sportsnet reporter Eric Engels tweeted that the Montreal Canadiens had narrowed down their search for a new GM to three candidates. Engels listed former Canadiens forward and current Tampa Bay Lightning Director of Hockey Operations Mathieu Darche, as well as another former Habs player, Daniel Briere. Briere is currently running the Maine Mariners in the ECHL. Engels also mentioned that Darche is a candidate for the Anaheim Ducks open GM job and will interview with them this week.

Believe Habs GM search could be resolved in the coming days. Told it’s down to three candidates, and believe Daniel Briere and Matthieu Darche are two of them. Also expect a couple of others who were interviewed to possibly land jobs with the club.

— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) January 14, 2022

On Saturday night, Sportsnet Insider Elliotte Friedman reported that the third candidate is NHL player agent Kent Hughes.

“I think of all the GM searches right now, that one could be the closest that’s coming to a close,” Friedman said during the weekly 32 Thoughts segment with Jeff Marek and Ron Maclean. “Eric Engels reported this week that some of the candidates had second interviews and now it is decision time for player agent Kent Hughes. Hughes as we reported at the beginning of the search was someone the Canadiens were very interested in. He’s very close with Jeff Gorton, who’s now running hockey operations there and the Canadiens want to know if Hughes is going to be a candidate and if he is interested in the job. I think that decision probably comes in the next few days and we’ll see where he goes, along with the other finalists, who are believed to be Daniel Briere and Mathieu Darche.

One other person by the way who was interviewed was Stephane Quintal from the National Hockey League but it sounds like Briere and Darche are among the finalists and now we find out, at some point soon, if Kent Hughes will be another.”

An email from Montreal Hockey Now to Hughes on Sunday morning had yet to receive a reply at the time this was published.

While the longtime agent resides in Massachusetts, Hughes grew up on the West Island and has some notable Quebec-born players on his client list, including Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron, Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang and former Tampa Bay Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier who was drafted first overall at the 1998 NHL Entry Draft.

As mentioned by Friedman, Hughes also has a strong relationship with the new Montreal Canadiens executive vice president of hockey operations, Jeff Gorton.  When Gorton was the New York Rangers GM, he selected Hughes’s son Riley in the seventh round (216th overall) of the 2018 NHL Draft. Hughes’s other son, Jack, is also a highly rated prospect for the 2022 NHL Draft, which will be held in Montreal. Riley and Jack, are both forwards and teammates with Montreal Canadiens prospect Jordan Harris at Northeastern University this season.

Hughes is an alum and former captain of the midget triple-A Lac St-Louis Lions. He later played four seasons as a forward with Middlebury College in Vermont.

The West Island native is currently one of the top player reps for Quartexx Management.