In a press conference after the NHL trade deadline, Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes made an interesting statement.

He revealed that he had major negotiations with none other than.. Martin St-Louis!

Regarding the changes to be made to the team leading up to the trade deadline, Hughes confirmed that he had lengthy negotiations with the coaching staff, including Martin St-Louis.

It seems that St-Louis and his staff wanted to keep all their regular players and ideally bring in reinforcements, while management had a more medium- to long-term vision.

In the end, Kent Hughes stuck to his plan.

Kent Hughes had major negotiations with Martin St-Louis ahead of the trade deadline

Here’s an excerpt of what he had to say on the subject.

“I can tell you that the longest negotiations we had leading up to the deadline were with our coaches! They are competitive and want to win.”

– Kent Hughes

It’s clear that Martin St-Louis wanted all the help possible to compete for a spot in the NHL playoffs.

He wants to win!

In the end, as you know, Kent Hughes did not add reinforcements to the team, nor did he make trades in that direction, but he also did not trade away any of the team’s regular players.

Christian Dvorak, Joel Armia, and David Savard (to name just a few) are still members of the Montreal Canadiens, so I suppose that represents a small victory for Martin St-Louis and his fellow Canadiens coaches.