NHL Rumors: Montreal Canadiens Priorities Heading into the NHL Draft

TSN: Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes when asked about the upcoming NHL draft and what their priorities are.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Bryan Mudryk: “Montreal Canadiens fans very excited for the draft. Two first round picks this year, two next year and obviously moves like getting (Kirby) Dach and (Alex) Newhook. A lot of excitement for your team. What are some of the priorities for you for the upcoming draft and going forward here?

Hughes: “Well, you know, we’ve talked and we had our end of the year media availability and we talked about, we can continue to do things to advance the rebuild or the build, that we would do it.

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But you know, we’re going to be mindful of what we’re trying to do long term here, which is to build a team that can win you know, on a sustainable level of year after year. Be competitive for the Stanley Cup. So if there is a an opportunity to improve us and move it forward, we’ll do it but not at the expense of what we’re trying to do long-term.

Mudryk: “I find the draft always so fascinating, because you could look at your organization in particular, a lot of depth on defense. What is the line like for a general manager, you know, drafting the best player or making sure obviously, you do what your organization needs going forward.”

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Hughes: “I always think there’s there’s a little bit of both involved. You know, we’re deep on D. We’re certainly deep on left shot D. So, you know, in all probability if we felt like we were in that type of situation, we’d look, we probably consider a trade.  We do that anyways, every year. Even when in, even the year we were in Montreal, we were open to exploring things. It’s just, nothing that came available.”