Kent Hughes and his assistants at the Under-18 World Cup

Kent Hughes and the Habs management team are gearing up for the upcoming draft.

They’re currently at the World Under-18 Championship, spotting the best talent for the 2024 draft…

And that’s important, because the Habs will still have a chance to get a good draft pick this year.

Yesterday, Vincent Lecavalier, Kent Hughes, Martin Lapointe and Nick Bobrov were spotted in the stands watching Canada’s game against Sweden.

They had the opportunity to see Tij Iginla in action, a guy who has been linked to the Habs in recent weeks…

But it was today that Iginla really stood out, scoring two goals against the Czech Republic.

His 2nd was magnificent:

Cole Eiserman also had some fun yesterday, scoring a hat trick against Slovakia.

Eiserman and Iginla could still be available when the Habs have to make their choice… And that’s why we’ve been watching their performances since the start of the competition.

That said, you have to be careful with the World Under-18 Championship, as Mathias Brunet explained in a recent article.

It’s important to know that if a player performs well during the tournament, usually his draft stock rises considerably… A bit like in 2018, when Jesperi Kotkaniemi wasn’t even one of the most interesting prospects before the tournament started.

In the end, KK had an extraordinary tournament (nine points in seven games) and that forced the Habs to select him with the 3rd pick in the draft.

All this to say that we shouldn’t get too excited about Cole Eiserman’s or Tij Iginla’s goals just yet.

We shouldn’t rely solely on their performances at the tournament, because that can be misleading… For the Habs and for any other NHL team.

In closing, Kent Hughes spoke with Bryan Mudryk (TSN), and repeated what he said in his end-of-season review.

If he can make a deal to improve the team, he won’t hesitate to do it…

And we know he wants to add a scorer to his line-up:

In gusto

– Slaf =

Which emoji best describes Slaf?

Slaf is a human emoji machine#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/5shJwkLbYT

– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) April 26, 2024

– His move:

– Love this.

– My goodness!