CALGARY – About 30 minutes before the NHL trade deadline Friday afternoon, Montreal Canadiens rookie defenceman Lane Hutson was sitting by himself on the bench at the Scotiabank Saddledome, all geared up, ready to practice. No one was on the ice. He could have jumped on, but he sat there, waiting.

Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki arrived a few minutes later, shared a few words with Hutson and stepped on the ice. Hutson followed him. The two shot a few pucks together before the rest of their Canadiens teammates joined them.

The practice was scheduled for 1 p.m. Mountain Time, right at the trade deadline. It was not a coincidence.

Eventually, Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak and David Savard stepped on the ice to join their teammates. It was a stressful moment for all three of them, but the timing of this practice ensured they would get through it with their teammates. The team arrived at the arena two hours before the deadline, and they waited together.

“I think it was important that we got together today,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “It’s a difficult moment, stressful for certain players. The ice is a sanctuary. So we scheduled the practice at that time, and it gave us a chance to go through that stressful moment together.

“I thought it was important.”

Armia, Dvorak and Savard were happy to practice, even though its purpose was largely meant to kill stressful time with a group they still wanted to be a part of. The practice lasted all of 20 minutes. The players did a bit of skill work, ran a few drills, and it was over.

The purpose had already been achieved.

This tiny gesture, this importance the group places on each other and being together, helps explain why Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes didn’t touch his team and allowed it to continue chasing a playoff spot rather than do what he’s done at every trade deadline: sell off players and gather assets.

As his players stepped off the ice in Calgary, Hughes spoke to reporters at the team’s training facility in Brossard, Que. He talked about balancing a focus on the future while managing the present.

“If it’s just one or just the other,” Hughes said, “I don’t think we’re going to get where we want to go.”

Hughes could have easily pulled the trigger on trading Armia or Savard, but he was not willing to waste an opportunity to see what his young players can do in the thick of a playoff race. The assets that trade could have brought in would have been valuable, but this information about his young core will be valuable as well.

“When they’re focused, they can compete with almost any team,” Hughes said when asked what he’s learned about his group. “For sure, we haven’t seen the consistency at a level we would have liked, but it’s natural. It’s what happens with young players. It’s what happens with a young team. It’s a learning curve that players need to go through, that a team needs to go through. So I’m looking forward to watching the next 20 games to see if they’re able to win under pressure and add that consistency.”

Savard has felt that pressure for a while. He is in the final year of his contract and desperately wanted to stay in Montreal. He signed with the Canadiens for more than just hockey reasons: he wanted his kids to grow up in a Francophone milieu, close to his and his wife’s families. The Canadiens coming out of the 4 Nations break with a 5-0-1 record allowed Savard to get through the deadline for a second straight year without being traded despite rumours.

“The last few games helped me a lot,” Savard said. “To climb the standings and be very close to the playoffs helped me a lot personally to stay here.”

He is just as relieved this year as last year, but he also sounded like someone who knows he is likely coming to the end of the road here. The final 20 games of the regular season might be his final 20 games in a Canadiens uniform unless they make the playoffs.

“Coming to the end of your contract is less fun when you’re my age,” Savard said. “I think when you’re younger, there’s a certain excitement over what’s going to happen. In the past, I was lucky to spend a good amount of time in Columbus, but I knew when I went to Tampa Bay I was entering a new phase, and I knew I probably wouldn’t be staying there. And there was a bit of a fun side to that.

“Now we’re going to focus on hoping to stay here, but we’ll see what’s going to happen.”

St. Louis saw the decision to keep those players as an important step in the Canadiens’ development, a sign they are on a new track, with new goals and new challenges.

“A little over three years ago, I took the job, and I knew it was a rebuilding team, but I feel like we’ve progressed,” he said. “I feel like we’re on track to doing the things we’ve said we’re going to do. Is this the year that we flip the needle? Like, it’s going the other way now. And to me, that’s a good sign.

“I think at some point, as a rebuilding team, you’ve got to flip the needle. Is it this year? It looks like it to me, and now we’ve got to keep moving forward.”

When Jake Allen signed a contract extension with the Canadiens before the 2022-23 season, St. Louis relayed a quote he’d heard about how “you need guys that are willing to plant trees knowing they’ll never sit in the shade.”

That was true of Allen. It is true of Savard. He knows he probably won’t be around to see this through, to flip that needle, and he knows going to a contender and perhaps performing well in the playoffs would give him a better chance to sign another contract at age 34.

But he didn’t want that. He wanted to stay, knowing full well he is about to leave.

“I’d love to see the fruits of the work we’ve done over the past few years, but it’s also fun to see the group improve and go in the right direction,” Savard said. “If I’m not with them anymore, I’ll keep following them, that’s for sure. I’ll be a fan of the team. We’re close, and I hope they have success if ever I’m not here anymore.”

Savard’s game has slipped. He was never the most mobile defenceman, and he is even less mobile now. But he is a courageous and skilled shot blocker, he is loved in that dressing room and perhaps most of all, he is willing to plant those trees.

“When you have a young core, I think it’s important to surround them with some quality veterans — obviously great players, too – but quality humans, and we have that,” St. Louis said. “I think it helps guide the youth that we have. Those guys are very selfless, and I’m thinking about (Josh Anderson), (Brendan Gallagher), (Savard), (Mike) Matheson. I’m glad that he’s still here.”

On Wednesday in Edmonton, Jake Evans talked about how it was difficult for him to help some of the younger players this year when he was so concerned about his contract situation — he saw a player like Owen Beck arrive and looked at him as his replacement.

“Especially this year, you’re in, but you’re also thinking you’re probably leaving. So it’s hard to invest fully in helping these young kids come in when you’re probably the one going out for them,” Evans said. “For me, now that I know I’ll be here, it’s whatever you can do to help the team.”

Savard has helped his replacements for three years. Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj, Jayden Struble and even Hutson. Even if they couldn’t be more opposite players, they all benefited from Savard’s presence.

“I wouldn’t say it’s rare, but it’s important,” St. Louis said. “It’s hard to buy that.”

As it turns out, it is sometimes hard to sell.