Canadiens announce agent Kent Hughes as new general manager

Kent Hughes is coming home to Montreal.

The Montreal Canadiens announced Tuesday morning they’d hired player agent Kent Hughes as the team’s 18th general manager in team history.

“We are very excited to add Kent Hughes to our organization. Kent is highly-respected in the hockey world, having built an excellent reputation as an NHL player agent for over 25 years now,” Canadiens owner Geoff Molson said in a statement.

Hughes, a 51-year-old Montreal native, was working for the agency Quartexx Management with clients such as Patrice Bergeron, Kristopher Letang, Anthony Beauvillier and Darnell Nurse prior to the hire.

With a record of 7-25-5, Hughes begins his tenure by taking over a 32nd place team.

“The process of finding our new general manager afforded us the opportunity to meet a number of extremely qualified candidates. Kent stood out, and we believe he is the right person to be the general manager of the Canadiens. We also believe that Kent’s experience as an agent will be a great asset to the organization,” executive vice-president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton said in a statement.

Hughes comes as the official replacement to Marc Bergevin, who was let go from the Habs in late November before joining the LA Kings front office earlier this month.