Here are the Montreal Canadiens and NHL news items you may have missed on Friday.

Montreal Canadiens News

• “If you’re not fired by the summer, you need to honour this trade”. Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes was reportedly furious at former Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving due to a failed trade-deadline deal that included Matthew Knies. [Canadiens Hughes Berated Leafs GM For Failed Knies Trade]

• There was some excellent news on Friday, as both Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki took home impressive individual awards. Suzuki took home the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward, while Caufield was given the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. It’s a good reminder that the best is yet to come for the youngest team in the NHL. [Canadiens Forwards Suzuki And Caufield Capture Impressive Awards]

• Seeing as he’s the man of the hour, we analyzed Suzuki’s season for our player grades. All things considered, it was easily an A+ season for the team’s most important forward. Not only did he score over 100 points, he took part in endless plays that helped his team win, without necessarily registering his name on the scoresheet. [Canadiens Player Grades: Suzuki Is Excellence Personified]

• ICYMI: When the Habs signed Texier, the expectations were quite low, given his recent history. Not only did he overdeliver, he actually produced better underlying numbers than Juraj Slafkovsky in his time with the first line. [Canadiens Player Grades: Texier Surprised With Excellent Value]

• Improving every season is Suzuki’s calling card, but it’s starting to become difficult given his evolution. That being said, Suzuki suggests there’s plenty left to work on before he’ll be satisfied with his results.

• The Dylan Larkin trade pipe bomb has everyone trying to connect dots on his next destination. While a lot of the chatter links him to teams with obvious center shortages, the New Jersey Devils keep surfacing as a dark horse possibility. [New Jersey Devils]

• It’s only been a week since the Colorado Avalanche were eliminated in the Western Conference Final, and changes are already underway. Most notably, general manager Chris MacFarland departed the organization on Tuesday to accept a promotion with the Nashville Predators. Even before his departure, one of the bigger questions surrounding the Avalanche’s offseason was whether it would have any impact on the future of head coach Jared Bednar. [Colorado Avalanche]