Kent Hughes Announces Acquisition of a Twelfth First-Round Draft Pick: The Team Has Been Able to Add Yet Another with Tanner Pearson on Tuesday
Kent Hughes has once again pulled off a surprise trade this past Tuesday that no one saw coming. He traded, as promised, goaltender Casey DeSmith to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Tanner Pearson and a 3rd round pick in 2025.
A striking fact about this deal is that it brings another 1st round pick to town. As reported by Charles-Alexis Brisebois from the site DLC, this marks the 12th time the Canadiens' GM has acquired a player drafted in the initial round of the draft.
Indeed, players like Kirby Dach, Tanner Pearson, Alex Newhook, Mike Matheson, Justin Barron, Sean Monahan, Lias Andersson, Nicolas Beaudin, and Filip Mesar (his pick was acquired in the Toffoli trade) were all selected in the first round. We must also not forget Denis Gurianov, the Islanders' pick (acquired in the Alex Romanov trade), and the Panthers' pick (acquired in the Ben Chiarot trade) who are no longer with the organization.
It's huge!
Add to this Juraj Slafkovsky and David Reinbacher, both drafted by Hughes, and Cole Caufield, Kaiden Guhle, and Logan Mailloux, all signed by the new Canadiens' GM. From the Bergevin era, if we exclude Carey Price, only Nick Suzuki and Joel Armia were drafted in the 1st round and are still with the team.
Are we starting to see a pattern?
There's certainly a desire to have and rejuvenate young and older talents who were initially promising. The Hughes/Gorton duo is undoubtedly focusing on talent, beyond attitude (see Bergevin era). Now, it remains to be seen whether the development of the younger players combined with the experience of the older ones will yield a different result this time.
| POLL | ||
Which GM do you think is better at winning trades? | ||
| Bergevin | 37 | 4.4 % |
| Kent Hughes | 812 | 95.6 % |
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