Jeff Gorton has the opportunity to finish what he has started.
Earlier this week, the Canadiens gave Gorton a promotion from executive vice-president of hockey operations to president of hockey operations.
More significantly, Gorton and general manager Kent Hughes were given five-year contract extensions that carry them through the 2030-31 season.
It’s a sign the ownership group headed by Geoff Molson is pleased with the progress of the rebuild, which officially began when Gorton was hired on Nov. 28, 2021. The Canadiens have improved in each of the past three seasons and secured an unexpected playoff berth last spring.
This is Gorton’s third rebuild and, while he met with success in his earlier projects, he wasn’t around to enjoy the fruits of his labours.
Gorton was working on a master’s degree in sport management when he joined the Boston Bruins’ public-relations department as an intern. His eye for talent earned him a scouting job, and, 14 years after he was hired, he became the interim general manager when Mike O’Connell was fired in 2006.
The gig lasted only four months, but Gorton left his mark on the Bruins before Peter Chiarelli was named GM in July.
At the 2006 draft, Gorton selected Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand, and acquired goaltender Tuukka Rask from Toronto in return for Andrew Raycroft. A week later, he signed free agents Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard. Most of those players helped Boston win the Stanley Cup in 2011, but Gorton was fired in 2007.
The New York Rangers immediately hired Gorton as a scout and he served as the Rangers’ GM from 2015 to 2021. New York missed the playoffs in Gorton’s final four seasons with the club, but he laid the foundation of the team that reached the Eastern Conference in 2022 and again in 2024.
Gorton whiffed when he selected Alexis Lafrenière No. 1 overall in the 2020 draft, but he hit home runs when he traded for defenceman Adam Fox and top-line centre Mika Zibanejad and signed free agent Artemi Panarin.
A lot of outside-the-box thinking has gone into the Canadiens’ rebuild.
Molson displayed some guts when he hired the unilingual Gorton. There was the usual grumbling from the usual quarters, although you don’t hear any complaints today. Molson did promise the new GM would speak French, but he didn’t say the new guy would be pure laine.
The new guy was Hughes, a bilingual West Island native, and he was a surprise because, though he was a highly respected player agent, he had no front-office experience at any level. He had also been living in the U.S. for more than a quarter-century.
Gorton knew Hughes from his days in Boston and they had been on opposite sides in negotiations. Hughes had turned down Gorton’s offer to work for the Rangers, but coming home to guide the team he cheered as a youngster proved irresistible.
The third piece of the puzzle was head coach Martin St. Louis and his hiring raised some eyebrows because he was coaching a midget team in Connecticut when the Canadiens came calling. His only pro coaching experience was one season as a special teams consultant with the Columbus Blue Jackets under John Tortorella.
Again, there was history in play. When St. Louis finished his career in New York, Gorton offered him a job coaching the Rangers’ AHL farm club. St. Louis turned it down because he wanted to spend more time with his sons. That’s when he became reacquainted with Hughes, who was coaching his sons in Boston.
When the Canadiens job opened, St. Louis’s sons were weighing college choices — Ryan is at Brown, Lucas is at Harvard and Mason has committed to Dartmouth — and dad was ready for work to help pay that Ivy League tuition.
The rebuild is a work in progress, but it seems to be trending in the right direction.
Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky, Oliver Kapanen and Lane Hutson have been solid draft choices, although it will take time before we know whether the oft-injured David Reinbacher is a franchise defenceman or a bust.
Gorton and Hughes have received more than they have given in trades that brought Noah Dobson, Zach Bolduc, Kirby Dach, Patrik Laine, Alexandre Carrier and Alex Newhook to Montreal. And Hughes managed to get two first-round draft choices out of Sean Monahan, one Calgary gave up to dump Monahan’s contract and one when he was traded to Columbus.
The most exciting part? The Canadiens went from being the second-youngest team in the NHL last season to being the youngest this time, and there’s plenty of room for growth.
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