Button: No GM is Throwing Kent Hughes a Life Jacket

Tony Marinaro on his podcast last night told Craig Button that Kent Hughes indicated he has no intention on making a panic move just because the team has been struggling.

“You said before, you talked about believing in the rebuild,” said Marinaro to Button. “And you said, ‘I’m sure they believe in the rebuild, and definitely they do because it was just like 24 hours ago that Kent Hughes came out and said, ‘Listen. We’re not going to make a panic move here. There’s no band-aid here. We wanna play young players. They’re going to make mistakes. If we bring in more veteran players to replace them will they make less mistakes? Yes. Will we probably win more games? Yes. But we’re not going to be advancing the project that we have because then, in two or three years, when we finally bring in those young players. At that point, we’re probably going to be wanting to win, but they’re probably going to be making those mistakes that they’re supposed to be learning from now, and so you just end up delaying the whole rebuild. So..patience, everyone. We’re not panicking. There’s no band-aid.’ It sounds like a GM that will stick to the plan. There’s no doubt about it.”

Button, a former NHL GM with Calgary, agreed wholeheartedly with Hughes’s line of thinking:

“At the golf tournament at the start of the season, Geoff Molson talked about…it wasn’t an easy decision to make, about this is the path we’re going to take, but he said he’s been encouraged by what the fans and how they’ve embraced it. It’s not always going to go how they would like it, and there’s going to be some bumps along the road, and Montreal Canadiens are experiencing that. What you can’t do…to Kent’s point, is just do something knee-jerk and panic; you just can’t.

“I joke about this all the time. When you’re team is struggling, and you’re sitting there…the other GM’s, they’re all ready to help you. They’re phoning Kent Hughes, Kent Hughes is in the deep water, and they’re (saying), ‘Kent, Kent, Kent. I’ve got a life jacket for ya.’ And you think you’re getting a life jacket? Do you know what it is? It’s an anchor. No GM in this league is here to help Kent Hughes. So if you’re not ready to be patient, and understand where you’re at, and understand that there’s going to be some bumps along the road…you’re going to get that anchor, and you’re going to sink.”