Slaf’s development: Hughes and the CH wondered if it was a mistake

Tonight, Kent Hughes was a guest on Tony Marinaro's podcast.

And let's just say the Canadiens' GM shared some really interesting insights. He seemed at ease, and you could tell from his energy that he was comfortable chatting with Tony.

It made for a great podcast moment. And I recommend you go listen to the episode in question to see just how refreshing it was to hear Hughes open up like that.

One of the topics discussed directly involved Juraj Slafkovsky. Kent Hughes saw that Slaf struggled on the ice during his first year in the National Hockey League, and that's normal: the Slovakian didn't look ready, and management wondered if they were making the right decision by keeping him in the NHL.

I can tell you there were games in Laval where we thought, “Damn, maybe we made a mistake.” – Kent Hughes

That said, the GM says it out loud: he's always believed in Slaf… ever since he drafted him with the first overall pick in 2022.

The Canadiens organization made the right call by keeping Slaf with the big club.

Because, in fact, it allowed him to learn a lot. The big forward was young, but he learned certain aspects of the game by playing with the best players in the world, and today, no one regrets that decision.

Especially not when you see Slaf dominating games the way he has been for months now.

It's nice to see the Montreal Canadiens' GM open up like this. It lets us learn things that sometimes remain unknown, and it helps fans understand some of the team's decisions as well.

But it's especially refreshing in the sense that Hughes isn't obligated to say these things. He decided to do it anyway… and it's really interesting to see how the Canadiens, for their part, viewed Slaf's development when he was in his very first season in the National Hockey League.

Overtime

I'd like to take this opportunity to commend Tony Marinaro, who conducted this interview with great passion (as usual).

He asked the right questions, and it resulted in some really great content for the fans.

Again, I recommend you go listen to the podcast if you haven't already!