Canadians reportedly have interest in Kent Hughes as chief executive

Content of the article

Jeff Gorton said something very interesting when he met the Montreal media for the first time on Friday as the new executive vice-president of hockey operations for the Canadiens.

Content of the article

When asked what he would look for in his new GM to replace fired Marc Bergevin, Gorton mentioned that this person could be a players’ agent.

“Obviously someone who has a great knowledge of hockey, an understanding of how the business works,” Gorton said when asked what he would look for in a general manager. “I think we’ll look at everything. I think what we want to do as a group is look at all the applicants and pick the best based on what they have. She might be someone who doesn’t have a ton of experience as a CEO, but what else does she have that she can bring to the table. How else could they help us envision a different scenario. So we’re going to look for someone maybe a little outside the box who can help us move forward and maybe complement me.

Content of the article

“I think we want to focus on finding someone who just has a different take on it,” Gorton added. “Look, I’ve been playing hockey my whole life. Maybe it could be an agent, it could be someone who was just a player. It could be someone, but someone different from me. I was not a player, I was not an agent. It could just be a different background. So we’ll look at these things. I’ve read some of the names (of possible candidates), I’ve heard some of the names, I’ve received calls. But I want to reserve, we want to reserve our judgment on this until we have a little more time to figure out who might be there and then we find the best person.

During Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that an agent could indeed become the Canadiens’ next general manager.

Content of the article

“The person I think they’re interested in and who’s an agent is Kent Hughes, who was born in Montreal, he’s bilingual (and is) now in the Boston area,” Friedman said. “So there’s a connection to Gorton for the two of them being there. Among the client list (of Hughes) are Patrice Bergeron (of the Boston Bruins), Kris Letang (of the Pittsburgh Penguins) and former Vincent Lecavalier of Quartexx Management. I think he’s on Montreal’s radar as a candidate.

“From what I’ve been told, there has been no contact at this time,” Friedman added. “And Gorton said yesterday that they didn’t ask to interview anyone. But I think he’s one of the agents or the agent on the Montreal radar.

The 36-year-old Bergeron is in the final season of his eight-year, $ 55 million contract.

Gorton said on Friday he didn’t expect to appoint a new chief executive until Christmas.

[email protected]

twitter.com/StuCowan1