Kent Hughes and Dan Milstein: An Increasingly Profitable Partnership for the CH

Jonathan Di Gregorio
Kent Hughes and Dan Milstein: An Increasingly Profitable Partnership for the CH
Credit: Capture d'écran / YouTube

The recent signings of Jakub Dobes and, above all, Ivan Demidov make it seem as though Kent Hughes is a magician when it comes to negotiating with his players.

The Habs' GM really seems to be drawing on his experience as a former player agent to give himself every possible advantage in reaching agreements that benefit both the team and the players.

Furthermore, over time, Hughes has begun building relationships with other player agents that are proving increasingly beneficial for his club. This is particularly true of Dan Milstein.

Milstein—you may have heard his name mentioned in recent days—is the agent for Ivan Demidov, with whom Hughes recently had to negotiate a contract extension for the young Russian.

He is also the agent for Alexandre Texier, who signed a two-year contract worth $2.5 million annually in January.

And in both cases, negotiations seemed to go smoothly, and both sides came away satisfied.

While the relationship between Hughes and the player's agent has been going well for some time now, it didn't start off on the right foot when the two first met in 2022 during the Alexander Romanov trade—another one of Milstein's clients.

But things have changed significantly since then.

In fact, as we learn from an article by Guillaume Lefrançois published in La Presse, the Montreal GM seems to have found a talent pool with Milstein.

After Demidov, the Canadiens drafted Alexander Zharovsky last year, as well as Gleb Pugachyov and Timofei Runtso with their first two picks this year.

All of these players are represented by Milstein.

When asked about the matter, Hughes denies intentionally drafting from Milstein's talent pool, as Milstein holds the rights to several Russian players competing in a more closed market.

Instead, the Habs' GM jokingly says that the agent is simply a good salesman.

It must be said that Milstein works hard to showcase his clients—most of whom are Russian—despite Russia's exclusion from international competitions since 2022.

In particular, he organizes a scouting camp for his players in Florida in June—between the NHL Scouting Camp and the draft—to which he invites scouts from various teams.

This is a key moment to showcase the talent of his young “protégés,” and it's a strategy that seems to be working, as 22 of his clients (nearly 10% of the 224 players drafted) were selected in the most recent draft.


In a Nutshell

– It's about to begin!

– Felix Auger-Aliassime advances to the quarterfinals.

– Nice slam!

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