32 is roughly what Hughes has to clear if Price isnt on LTIR

Team: 2022-23 Montreal Canadiens

Initial Creation Date: Aug. 18, 2022

Published: Aug. 18, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Monahan is a solid Faceoff Center and Dach is not but still young
When we got Danault he was in a similar situation banged up and traded after injury issues.
Danault struggled at Center too so they put him with Andrew Shaw a trend that continued in MTL

Another better example perhaps is what Jumbo Joe did with Pavelski.
Monahan gets the chance at top 6 minutes in a role playing situation
He also potentially adds MTL to teams after him in Free agency if he clicks with Dach

If you're Hughes going into the TDL having Dadanaov , Monahan in top 6 makes most sense.
Drouin is a special teams guy who's value will be detrmined on him getting back up to 15-25 PPP thi year .
In order to secure any real return for Drouin playing him 3rd with our best possesion Center helps too

MTL could walk out of the TDL with multiple 1st's again and prospects
Thats before we consider what we can get from Schuneman as well who's also a pending UFA
Morrow played a similar role as 7th D short term got us a 4th round pick
Kulak evolved from a similar role and was developed 2-3 years got us a 2nd round pick
Schuneman's a solid skater who's heavy into special teams with a good shot at 750K

Hughes is going to be like a kid in a Candy store.
He can either keep developing or spend some of that capital securing a true #1 RD prospect
He's done more in less then 12 months then MB did in a decade(and i thought MB did the best he could at the time under Molson)

Good times to be a Habs fan ironically during the biggest rebuild overall of my lifetime.
Hughes is the guy in MTL now, i just cant imagine him not winning GM of the Year
Especially as a rookie with no experience at any level with management in pro sports
He's showing the world GM template we're used to might be holding teams back
I know i was annoyed when he got here thinking great another rookie GM
Never been so happy to be wrong in my life