Kent Hughes has successfully beaten two other NHL teams for Denis Gurianov

There was a lot of movement in the NHL over the weekend, and among the teams that made moves was the Montreal Canadiens.

GM Kent Hughes made a very good move, acquiring forward Denis Gurianov from the Dallas Stars, in exchange for veteran Evgenii Dadonov.

It's a very impressive result, considering that we all expected the CH to get at best a low draft pick.

Finally, the club got a big 25 year old forward with good potential, a former first round pick, 12th overall in 2015, who has a very good skating stroke and a great shot.

The latter never seemed to find his niche in the Stars' lineup, as he was essentially limited to a fourth trio in Dallas, playing only about 12 minutes per game.

Yet he had a 20-goal season in 2019-20, as well as a very strong playoff run, where he scored nine goals and 17 points in 27 games. The following season, he had a combined 30 points, including 12 goals, in 55 games. It slowed down a bit last year, before hitting a wall completely this season.

With two goals and seven assists for nine points in 43 games, things were not going well for him with the Stars.

However, the Russian forward is an excellent bet to believe that he could revive his career in Montreal under Martin St-Louis. Montreal was not the only team that believed in Gurianov's potential.

In fact, according to Elliotte Friedman's latest 32 Thoughts podcast, the Habs were not the only team interested in him.

Friedman said that Hughes would have topped the Philadelphia Flyers and the Carolina Hurricanes at the finish line.

If the Tricolore's new number 25 were to emulate the progression of another Russian player who was drafted very high by the Stars, in Valeri Nichushkin, Kent Hughes would once again be considered a true genius.

For those who don't know the story, Nichushkin was the 10th overall pick by Dallas in 2013. After several seasons where he had very similar production to Gurianov, Nichushkin literally exploded offensively at age 26, scoring 52 points, including 25 goals, in 62 games with the Colorado Avalanche.

Let's see if, like many other players before him, Gurianov can reach his full potential in Montreal.

Credit: HabsolumentFan

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