Rumor: Flyers reportedly blocked Habs from hiring Daniel Briere as GM

The Montreal Canadiens have hired player agent Kent Hughes as their new general manager, replacing longtime GM Marc Bergevin.

Hughes is a longtime NHL player agent who has represented the likes of Patrice Bergeron, Kristopher Letang, Anthony Beauvillier, Marco Scandella, Michael Matheson, Samuel Blais and William Carrier, all French-Canadian born players. While Hughes may have an English sounding name, he grew up in Montreal and is indeed fluent in both French and English.

"We are very excited to add Kent Hughes to our organization. Kent is highly-respected in the hockey world, having built an excellent reputation as an NHL player agent for over 25 years now," said owner Geoff Molson in a prepared statement.

"The process of finding our new general manager afforded us the opportunity to meet a number of extremely qualified candidates. Kent stood out, and we believe he is the right person to be the general manager of the Canadiens. We also believe that Kent's experience as an agent will be a great asset to the organization," declared the executive vice-president of hockey operations, Jeff Gorton in the same statement.

Hughes will work alongside Gorton with the Herculean task of turning around a Habs team that went from the Stanley Cup Final in 2021 to dead last in the NHL this season.

Interestingly enough, multiple insiders are reporting that Hughes may not have been the Habs' first choice as GM and were in fact blocked from hiring Daniel Briere from the Philadelphia Flyers organization. Briere, a longtime NHL player who suited up for both the Flyers and the Habs, has been GM of the Flyers' ECHL affiliate Maine Mariners the past few seasons and is widely considered a rising, young star in the NHL management ranks. The Flyers, again according to multiple insiders, weren't interested in letting Briere out of his contract and, presumably, have plans for him in the future.

Interesting, to be honest I was surprised that Briere was a finalist for the Habs' GM spot in the first place. He may very well be a quality NHL GM one day, but so far his only experience is in two and a half COVID interrupted seasons in the ECHL. Frankly, I'd expect him to work his way up the ranks a little more before taking over as an NHL GM... and that's saying nothing for being GM of a team like the Canadiens where the GM is ALWAYS on the hot seat.