{"id":603680,"date":"2026-06-21T09:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T09:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/603680\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T09:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T09:42:20","slug":"excellent-signing-by-kent-hughes-and-the-montreal-canadiens-on-defense-following-in-jake-evans-footsteps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/603680\/","title":{"rendered":"Excellent signing by Kent Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens on defense: ‘Following in Jake Evans’ footsteps’"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t \"Buffalo <\/p>\n

Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Little by little, Kent Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens announced an interesting signing.<\/p>\n

With the excitement of the playoffs and the end of the season, it largely went unnoticed, but let’s revisit this intriguing contract.<\/p>\n

Luke Mittelstadt<\/a> is truly turning heads and could very well become the organization’s next great seventh-round steal.<\/p>\n

For the Canadiens, one name has already beaten those odds.<\/p>\n

Jake Evans<\/a>, the 207th overall pick, became an indispensable player for the Canadiens.<\/p>\n

Mittelstadt could follow a similar path.<\/p>\n

“After Jake Evans, he may be the Canadiens’ next seventh-round steal”<\/p>\n

– Nicolas Cloutier<\/p>\n

The defenseman has climbed the ranks at a phenomenal pace since arriving in Laval.<\/p>\n

His journey was far from an obvious one.<\/p>\n

He was selected 197th overall by the Canadiens in 2023 at the age of 20.<\/p>\n

That late-round status motivated him.<\/p>\n

“It’s definitely something that lit a fire under me,” the player admitted.<\/p>\n

Why is his rise so impressive?<\/p>\n

Because it happened in record time.<\/p>\n

Canadiens prospect Owen Mittelstadt impresses after rapid rise in Laval<\/p>\n

Mittelstadt quickly earned his place in Laval.<\/p>\n

In addition, he was also quarterbacking the first power-play unit.<\/p>\n

A significant responsibility for a player who had arrived only in mid-March.<\/p>\n

One Canadiens staff member is particularly high on him.<\/p>\n

Francis Bouillon, with 776 NHL games under his belt, is undoubtedly one of his biggest supporters.<\/p>\n

Pascal Vincent also trusted that evaluation.<\/p>\n

“When Francis gets excited about a player, I have tremendous confidence in his judgment,” explained the man who was then the Rocket’s head coach.<\/p>\n

He is certainly a name for Montreal Canadiens fans to keep an eye on!<\/p>\n

Previously on Montreal Hockey Fanatics<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

15 HOURS AGO|305 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Excellent signing by Kent Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens on defense: ‘Following in Jake Evans’ footsteps’<\/p>\n

Will Luke Mittelstadt become a full-time NHL player with the Montreal Canadiens?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images Little by little, Kent Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3203,5,639,1749,1527,20356,21,4],"class_list":["post-603680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-draft-pick","tag-hockey","tag-jake-evans","tag-kent-hughes","tag-laval-rocket","tag-luke-mittelstadt","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116787448639336908","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}