So he expects him to be ready for opening night, but there's also a chance he could be on long-term injured reserve. Got it.
The Habs today signed Kirby Dach, making their payroll the NHL's most expensive. They currently sit $10.2M over the league's salary cap but are expected to see Carey Price's $10.5M unburdened by LTIR relief. Still, with only ~$250,000 left in cap space, I have a hunch Hughes' words above indicate he will place Byron on LTIR to save himself an extra $3.4M in breathing room. Presumably to make a trade to move money out.
A strength of Hughes' is his diplomatic abilities, not unlike Chancellor Palpatine in Star Wars. He possesses a keen ability to word his way through questions like that without providing any real information. It is an art, frankly. Nevertheless, it looks like Paul Byron could be ready or be out for an extended period of time. Somewhere in the middle, you could say.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 7 | 171 ANSWERS Paul Byron 'Might' Start the Year on LTIR, So Basically He is Starting the Year on LTIR Has Kent Hughes been a good GM so far? | ||
| Yes | 101 | 59.1 % |
| No | 70 | 40.9 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
|
EN DIRECT
20 MAI 2026
| ||||
| B | P | PTS | ||
| Dylan Coghlan | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nic Dowd | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Landeskog | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Colton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ben Hutton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Saad | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Colton Sissons | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Devon Toews | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Ahcan | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| Brent Burns | - | - | - | |
| Jack Drury | - | - | - | |
| STATS COMPLÈTES | ||||