Hughes on Weber's health status:
"Everything we've heard from our doctors is that physically, he's in really tough shape. I think I may have mentioned that if I thought he was coming back anytime soon, we wouldn't be trading his contract. We've always worked off the assumption here that Shea's injuries are debilitating and will make it impossible for him to return to play."
Hughes on if the transaction could give the team more flexibility to make moves around the Draft and free-agency time period:
"On the one hand we traded out a higher cap value in Shea Weber, but we also had the ability to use that LTIR space once the season began. We lose that ability in taking on hard dollars, but we take on less of it. [Any future moves] are to be determined, because we're having a lot of conversations and exploring a lot of ways to create flexibility or make changes here. But I think I've said from the very beginning that everything that we do, or try to do, is with an objective of trying to put a team on the ice that can win on a continual or sustainable basis. Everything that we do will be, first and foremost, with that objective in mind. So, when we make a trade like this, whether it limits us short term or not, I think it benefits us - certainly from a longer-term perspective, meaning years two, three, and four. I think that was most important for us, but hopefully there will be more news to come in terms of changes here."
Hughes on whether moving Weber would allow the team's leadership group to evolve and cement their roles:
"I think our locker room was starting to figure that out, just because he wasn't there. But certainly there's a kind of finality that comes with this trade. I was asked early on when I first took the job if I thought there would be a captain in place. I do; it's not something that I'm going to decide on unilaterally. It's something that we're going to talk to the coaching staff about, but we had a period of time where we were able to look, evaluate, and speak to the players on the team about who was stepping up, and who has the leadership qualities and the maturity to take that type of role on in a market like Montreal."
Hughes on what Evgenii Dadonov brings to the team:
"We believe that Dadonov can bring an offensive element to our team. We definitely need to continue to improve the team's offense. For sure, he only has a year left on his contract and he will be a free agent at the end of the year, depending on what happens, but we definitely want to bring in a player who can help us rather than trading for a pick that could help us in the future."
Hughes on the possibility of trading Jeff Petry before the Draft:
"I don't think there's an imminent trade. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be one between now and the Draft because two weeks ago, I couldn't have predicted for you that Shea would've been traded, either. Sometimes, certain things happen faster than others. Teams are currently evaluating their needs, evaluating the players they do and don't want to sign, all of that. So we'll see, but I can tell you the phone has been ringing more this week than last, and I expect it will ring even more in the coming weeks."
