Surprising study: the general public of the NHL is unfair and does not believe in Hughes and Gorton

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Jeff Drouin
August 20, 2022 (4:00 PM)

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This Thursday, The Athletic released a very interesting ranking of the 32 NHL rosters. Dom Luszczyszyn analyzed the work of the staffs of each team with the responses of two groups, the general public and the fan-base of the team in question. The difference between the two is very interesting to see.

This year's top three are the Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning and Detroit Red Wings. We remind you that the analysis is not on the state of the strengths of the formations, but on the level of work of the DG and his assistants. On this subject, the CH is ranked 16th in the league, one place better than in the previous ranking.

Here's what came out of the study:

"Everything HuGo [Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton] has done over the past eight months inspires confidence that this new regime will be a winning team for the foreseeable future. From draft philosophy to player development, coaching, cap management, etc., the combination of (Jeff) Gorton and (Kent) Hughes has really excited me for the future of the Tricolor.

The combination of skill, experience, collaboration, openness to diversity of opinion and commitment to process and development leads me to believe that the Canadiens are building a hockey operations department that is as good as it gets and HuGo as a leadership tandem is as good as it gets in the game.

The new management team inherited a mess from the previous administration, so it will be a while before we can really rate them. But the first few months of this regime make me cautiously optimistic."

We can clearly see the Marc Bergevin effect here... It really seems that the public is judging the sins of Marc Bergevin and not those of Hughes and Gorton, something that should not be.

The next ranking will certainly be different, when a full season will now be under the tie of the new club staff.