The first player that will sacrificed by Kent Hughes in a trade is possibly known

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MarcO
October 21, 2022 (5:16 PM)

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It's no surprise to anyone that the Habs have a significant surplus of forwards in their lineup right now. While Paul Byron and Joel Armia are on the injured list, Rem Pitlick and Michael Pezzetta have been in the media gallery for several games.

In the meantime, Tricolore head coach Martin St-Louis is trying to give all the players on his roster a fair amount of playing time, even his fourth line.

For his part, Kent Hughes is very active on the trade market. One of his known objectives right now is to find a right-handed defenseman in return for one of his forwards.

By the way, the Habs GM was not present today for the official team photo at the Bell Centre. It is not common that such an important person of the organization has to be absent from this photo.

Information is circulating on social networks that Hughes will not be in Montreal, as he would be scouting for his team.

It is quite possible that the first player sacrificed by Hughes is already known.

In last night's game against the Coyotes, there was a rather large anomaly, as Evgeny Dadonov was the Habs' most used player with almost 17 minutes of playing time.

Meanwhile, important players on the team like Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield only had 14 minutes 56 seconds and 13 minutes 13 seconds respectively.

Since he's not part of the team's long-term plan, it's clear that Dadonov is being traded by Hughes. To see the Russian being the most used player in the last game, knowing that he absolutely does not deserve such a high number of minutes of playing time, there is something wrong.

Furthermore, number 63 is used to excess in the power play by MSL. It is clearly a skill that is put forward by the organization to try to boost its trade value. In this way, the profile of the 33-year-old forward becomes more and more interesting for a team that wants to add depth to its roster for the playoffs.

It is supposed to deduce that the latter is clearly in the showcase by the organization now.

With the return of Armia, who started skating again in the last few days, there is no doubt that a forward should leave the Habs soon and it is possible that the first player Hughes will sacrifice will be Dadonov.