Phillip Danault: Kent Hughes has been acquiring French-speaking players for the past year

Mathis Therrien
Phillip Danault: Kent Hughes has been acquiring French-speaking players for the past year
Credit: Getty Images

In the last few days, rumors had been growing that Phillip Danault would be back with the Canadiens, and last night, while many were watching the boxing match, things came to fruition.

Kent Hughes and the Los Angeles Kings were able to complete the deal before the holiday freeze.

We know how aggressive the Habs general manager has been about improving his team for weeks now, and now he's done it.

For the second season in a row, Kent Hughes picked up québécois reinforcements just before Christmas, just as he did with Alexandre Carrier on December 18.

And if we push the analysis even further, we realize that over the past year, Kent Hughes has multiplied his French-speaking acquisitions.

With Danault, the Habs GM has now acquired six players—seven, if you count Samuel Blais—who are French-speaking or closely linked to the language of Molière.

Of course, Noah Dobson isn't a francophone, but he still speaks good French, and he played in the QMJHL at junior level.

So it's really nice to see that Kent Hughes has a certain tendency in the last year to acquire players capable of expressing themselves in French.

But what we really understand is that the Habs are clearly trying to establish a culture of players who want to play in Montreal.

Noah Dobson asked to be traded to Montreal, and Texier, Blais, and Veleno all willingly signed with the Habs.

Obviously, they didn't all choose the Habs (like Carrier or Bolduc, who was surprised by the deal), but they're all guys who are clearly very happy to be part of the Montreal Canadiens.

In short, the Habs now have eight players—Danault, Bolduc, Texier, Veleno, Matheson, Carrier, Dobson, and Montembeault (even though he's currently in Laval)—who can communicate in French.

Let's just say we're a long way from the days when Alex Belzile was the only Québécois player in the Habs lineup.


Overtime

– Another interesting transaction was made just before the holiday freeze.

– Stay tuned today.

– It would be incredible.

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