Kent Hughes made such a steal last year that some experts don't believe it

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Jeff Drouin
October 19, 2022 (8:50 PM)

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With the bad news that the Florida Panthers announced today, we had the opportunity to look back at the trade they made with the Montreal Canadiens last year.

As a reminder, earlier today, the Panthers placed their top defenseman, Aaron Ekblad, on the long-term injury list. This is huge for them, and their defensive squad is now probably the worst in the NHL.

Marc Staal - Radko Gudas
Gustav Forsling - Lucas Carlsson
Josh Mahura - Matt Kiersted

This unfortunate news has a direct impact on the Montreal Canadiens, who own Florida's 2023 (unprotected) first round pick.

You can guess that with Ekblad's long-term absence, this first-round pick has just become extremely valuable. That really hurts the Panthers.

Let's recap the famous trade in question here:

To the Panthers: Ben Chiarot

To the Habs: 2023 1st round pick (unprotected), 2022 4th round pick, prospect Ty Smilanic

As Matt Drake of Habs Eyes on the Prize mentions, this is such a good Kent Hughes trade that even the best experts don't believe it.

"Kent Hughes made such a good trade (with the Panthers) that the head of the Professional Hockey Writers Association doesn't think he's as good as he is."

Basically, what he's saying here is that highly regarded tipster Frank Seravalli published this:

"Habs fans shouldn't really (get excited). The pick is protected if it's top-10 (the one acquired in the Ben Chiarot trade)."

Now, Seravalli was really surprised to find out that this is not true. The pick traded by the Panthers, to the CH, is not protected in any way.

Although he struggles to believe it so much that it was brilliant of Kent Hughes, Seravalli had to reconsider:

"My apologies and thanks to the people who responded for the correction. I just checked in with a few people - the Habs own this free and clear pick, no strings attached."

And in the comments, there are many observers who can't believe the Panthers did this. Kudos to Kent Hughes!

The Panthers placed strict conditions on the first round picks they traded to the Flames and Sabres, but not on the pick they traded to the Canadiens. We love it!

We obviously don't want to hurt anyone, but it will be interesting to see what happens to this famous pick.