Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton did a good job at the trade deadline but that was the easy part. The time to pass judgment on how they’re doing will come when the heavy lifting gets done in the offseason and beyond.

An extended rebuild has been speculated lately with the Canadiens struggling mightily this season. But what if Jeff Gorton and his eventual new management team go a different direction and try to upgrade the roster instead?

With the Habs reading the one-quarter mark of the season, there have been plenty of surprises and disappointments with at least a handful of small positives along the way.

At some point, the Habs will need to name a captain. But with no one really being ready to step into that role just yet, the team is right to go without one for the time being.

There are plenty of wildcards heading into the 2021-22 season. One of those will certainly be head coach Dominique Ducharme as he runs training camp for the first time and looks to learn from some choices that didn’t work out as well as he had hoped in the playoffs.