A Montreal native, Hughes grew up in the West Island (Pierrefonds and Beaconsfield) and played bantam AA hockey for the West Island Royals and midget AAA for the Lac St-Louis Lions.[1] In 1987–88, he played for the Cégep de Saint-Laurent Patriotes, helping his team win the league championship. He later attended Middlebury College, where he was the captain of the hockey team for the 1991-92 season.[2] Hughes earned a Juris Doctor degree from Boston College in 1996 before becoming a player agent.[3]
Hughes first became acquainted with hockey executive Jeff Gorton when both lived in Boston, with the latter working for the Boston Bruins. Gorton first attempted to recruit Hughes to work with him while he was general manager of the New York Rangers, but he declined. Gorton was later hired by Geoff Molson to be executive vice president of hockey operations for the Montreal Canadiens, after having sacked general manager Marc Bergevin after the team had a historically disastrous start to the 2021–22 NHL season, and began a search for a replacement. Hughes was persuaded to interview for the job, which he considered a "dream" position.[4] His hiring as the eighteenth general manager in team history was announced on January 18, 2022.[5][1] Molson would subsequently characterize Hughes' hiring as the beginning of a team "rebuild", a process that the franchise had heretofore avoided in its modern history.[6]
While it was initially announced that coach Dominique Ducharme would be retained for the remainder of the season, Hughes removed Ducharme and replaced him with retired star forward Martin St. Louis after the team had lost seven consecutive games at the beginning of 2022, most by blowout margins. Despite having no prior professional coaching experience, St. Louis was immediately well-received.[7][8] Beginning a plan to revamp the team's roster, Hughes executed a series of trades in his first two months, parting with players Tyler Toffoli, Ben Chiarot, Brett Kulak and Artturi Lehkonen to secure new draft picks and prospects.[9] Following the season's end, Hughes announced the creation of the Canadiens' first in-house analytics department.[10]
Hughes' first draft as general manager was consequential in that Montreal was both the host and held the first overall pick for the first time since 1980. The Canadiens would draft Slovak winger Juraj Slafkovský first overall, departing from the longstanding consensus that had favoured Canadian centre Shane Wright as the topmost selection. On the day of the draft, Hughes also executed a series of trades to acquire former third overall pickKirby Dach from the Chicago Blackhawks.[11] In the same off-season, Hughes fulfilled the trade request from defenceman Jeff Petry by trading him to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Mike Matheson, a former client of his. The trade was generally considered a success for the Canadiens after its first year.[12][13]
In Hughes' first full year as general manager, the Canadiens finished fifth-last in the league.[14] In advance of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, Hughes traded the thirty-first overall selection that he acquired in the Chiarot trade the year prior to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Alex Newhook, another of his former clients, who was subsequently signed to an extension.[15][16] With their own first round selection being fifth overall, the team opted to take Austrian EHC Kloten defenceman David Reinbacher over Russian SKA Saint Petersburg forward Matvei Michkov. This choice proved controversial, given the latter's projected scoring talent and the Canadiens' lack of offensive depth.[17][18][19][20]
