Colin White: Kent Hughes continues to collect first-round draft picks

When Kent Hughes acquired Colin White (to send Brandon Gignac back to help out the Rocket), people made the connection that the former agent was looking for another client to bring to town.

He’s already done it with Mike Matheson and Alex Newhook, two major players in town. He’s also done it with Anthony Richard, who has only been with the organization for a short time.

White is a former high draft pick (first round), but the hope of seeing him blossom to his NHL potential is no longer really present in his case, we agree. On the contrary…

But here’s another aspect we can explore: once again, Kent Hughes went after a player who was already a first-round pick in his draft year. #Talent

In fact, when we look at the club’s current payroll , we see that six guys were brought to town by the current administration and are first-round picks. Here’s which ones.

• Tanner Pearson
• Alex Newhook
• Juraj Slafkovsky
• Colin White
• Mike Matheson
• Kirby Dach (injured list)

If we push outside the Habs’ payroll, Justin Barron could also be added to the DG’s list, who has acquired numerous first-round picks since taking office just two years ago.

The same goes for David Reinbacher, drafted with the Habs’ 2023 pick.

We’re talking about the Islanders’ first pick in 2022 (Alexander Romanov deal), the Flames’ first pick in the Tyler Toffoli deal (now Filip Mesar), the two picks in the Sean Monahan saga (Jets and Flames) and the Panthers’ pick in the Ben Chiarot deal.

Even though they are no longer in Montreal, Denis Gurianov, Nicolas Beaudin and Sean Monahan, all former first-round picks, have all been acquired by the Habs at some point. Of the lot, only Monahan is in the NHL full-time.

That’s no less than 16 first-round picks (whether the pick itself or a player already drafted in the first round) brought to Montreal by Kent Hughes.

Many have left, but Hughes is playing with talent.

Of the six players currently on the Habs payroll who are first-round picks obtained by Kent Hughes, we must add six other players from the Marc Bergevin era.

Which six?

• Karl Alzner
• Carey Price
• Joel Armia
• Kaiden Guhle
• Cole Caufield
• Nick Suzuki

Alzner will leave the Habs payroll at the end of the year, Price is injured for the foreseeable future and Armia isn’t the most important guy in town, but the other three are great gifts.

Especially Suzuki, who has been acquired and extended by Marc Bergevin.

Of course, Bergevin has added some first-round talent as well (Logan Mailloux should be mentioned, in particular) in his 10 years at the helm of the Habs. The point of the article isn’t to take that away from the club’s former GM, who was never rebuilding either, or to compare Bergevin to Hughes.

The point, really, is to say that the current man is doing it a lot.

In gusto

– Hello, Logan Cooley. Will he prove that the Habs made the right or wrong decision tonight? #2022

– Logical.

– To be continued.

– What is its maximum value? And when should it be maximized?