Being honest and straightforward with people is a great way to run any business.
That’s how Jeff Gorton, as executive vice-president of hockey operations, and general manager Kent Hughes have run the Canadiens since starting a rebuilding process almost four years ago.
The culture they have helped create by being honest and straightforward while making smart personnel decisions helped the Canadiens make the playoffs for the first time in four years last season. It also played a role in Lane Hutson agreeing to an eight-year, US$70.8-million contract extension on Monday with an annual salary-cap hit of US$8.85 million starting next season.
Hughes was able to turn down the temperature on what had become emotional contract talks by sitting down one-on-one with Hutson when the Canadiens were on the road last weekend to give his side of the negotiations while also listening to the 21-year-old defenceman’s concerns.
“He’s pretty good at explaining his point of view and I explained mine and we met in the middle,” Hutson said.
On Tuesday, Canadiens owner/president Geoff Molson announced two more huge signings with Gorton and Hughes both agreeing to five-year contract extensions. They were both in the final year of their current deals and Gorton will see his title upgraded from executive vice-president of hockey operations to president of hockey operations, while Hughes will remain as GM. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that on at least three occasions Molson has blocked other NHL teams from speaking to Gorton about other job opportunities.
The Canadiens were an absolute mess when Molson fired GM Marc Bergevin and hired Gorton on Nov. 28, 2021, sitting in 29th place in the overall NHL standings with a 6-15-2 record. Gorton was facing a monumental rebuilding task and the first big step was hiring Hughes as GM on Jan. 18, 2022, followed by the hiring of Martin St. Louis as head coach less than a month later, replacing Dominique Ducharme.
“When I got hired there wasn’t really talk about culture,” St. Louis said after the Canadiens’ morning skate Tuesday ahead of their home opener against the Seattle Kraken and shortly before the re-signings of Gorton and Hughes were announced. “I think that was a little further. I think when I got hired it was trying to raise the group emotionally more than anything. So I think that was priority No. 1.
“You can’t come in and want to explain everything you’re going to do to the players — you can’t do that,” St. Louis added. “You got to just go one thing at a time. And it was clear to me coming in that I had to lift the group emotionally and I thought we did that and we started having some fun. And then as that happens, then you can kind of see like, OK, this is the path. And to me it always started with culture after that. We have to establish that.”
The culture we now see in the Canadiens’ locker room and on the ice started at the top with Gorton and Hughes.
“I think it’s got to go from top down,” St. Louis said. “You can’t just skip levels just because of positions. I think they embodied that the way they treat everybody. Not just the players, the security people in the building, everybody. It’s real. It’s easier to build a good culture when you have good people and I wouldn’t have taken this job if I didn’t think that Gorts and Kent are great people. It’s easier to move along and get there quicker when you have consistency in behaviour.”
When it looked like contract talks with Hutson were going to go off the rails, Hughes was honest and straightforward with the Calder Trophy winner and worked things out.
“The organization did a great job with the signing,” Hutson’s teammate Josh Anderson said. “You can just tell that (Hutson) wants to do something special here in Montreal. He’s loved by everybody here, too. You can see that.
“I think the message around here is how special a group we have and how badly we want to win, especially here in Montreal,” Anderson added. “I think everyone gets treated fairly and equally here and I think at the end of the day everyone just wants to win. It doesn’t really matter how much you make or how little you make when you’re in the locker room. You kind of see that bond between each other.”
Gorton, Hughes and St. Louis have also created a special bond between each other.
“It’s comical,” St. Louis said with a chuckle. “It’s good. We all have serious jobs, but we don’t take ourselves so seriously. We’re all competitors, but we all have a pretty good sense of humour, too. So we kind of have our own locker room a little bit that way. So it’s kind of funny and it makes it fun coming to work.”
That’s a key to success with any business.
Related