The NHL Draft Lottery is always an interesting event because, depending on the talent pool, it can change the trajectory of the franchise that gets the first pick. Famously Sidney Crosby was drafted by the Penguins first overall in 2004, Connor Mcdavid rejuvenated the Edemonton Oilers when they made him their top pick in 2015. This year, the lottery was interesting because of Gary Bettman’s reaction and because the Habs have their first first overall pick since Guy Lafleur in 1971. Le Tricolore have sucked for so long but they haven’t sucked enough to get the first overall pick. Carey Price was taken #5, Alex Galchenyuk and Jesperi Kotkaniemi at #3, Mikhail Sergachev at #9. In the last 20 years, the only first round picks that have had success in the NHL were either traded to have success with another organisation like Ryan Mcdonagh, Mikhail Sergachev and Max Pacioretty or their name is Carey Price.
The Habs never were able to develop their first round picks. Nikita Scherbak didn’t have the maturity. Michael Mccarron couldn’t skate. More recently Jesperi Kotkaniemi isn’t worth the price. Kotkaniemi (2018) and Andrei Kostitsyn (2003) will forever be referenced as two of the worst picks in Montreal Canadiens history. Excluding the David Fischer pick in 2006 of course. We can look at Ryan Poehling (2017) scoring four goals in his first NHL game and now is struggling to stay up in the show. The book isn’t out on Poehling yet. The Habs draft success came in later rounds. P.K Subban (2007) was taken in the second round. Brendan Gallagher came out of the fifth round in 2010. Artturi Lehkonen in 2013 was chosen 55th overall and Jake Evans was pulled out of the seventh round.
This organisation never committed to the rebuild, and now that Kent Hughes is here and is set on rebuilding one of the most storied organisations in the world of sports, the city of Montreal is excited. With studs in the pipe like Kaiden Guhle and Logan Mailloux drafted in 2020 and 2021 in the first round by the Canadiens, the future is looking sharp. The young core that the general Habs fan would already know of are Cole Caufield in 2019 and in 2018 drafting Jordan Harris, Jesse Ylonen and Alexander Romanov who are all on pace to being consistently in the roster. The fact is that the Habs always have drafted 1-2 quality players but it rarely came in the first round and if it did, it was traded away.
Habs fans need to chill the F**** out though. Were all excited! Nobody knows who the best pick will be. If it’s Shane Wright or Logan Cooley or Juraj Slafkovsky. That’s fun to say SLAF-KOV-SKY! Mouthful. Draft him! No, draft Wright! We don’t know. The only people that know are the ones making the decision. We have to sit back and trust the process. But some loser Habs fans will get on Twitter and give their uneducated opinion about three players they’ve never watched play and are solely basing themselves off of other Twitter losers like them. It’s a vicious circle of non-sense.
Let’s hope the Habs don’t mess this one up. Rarely do I agree with Tony Marinaro but today I happen to take a break from Chiclets or JRE and I listened to TSN690. At 11AM on my way home from the gym, I knew exactly who I would set my ears on. The Montreal Forum with Tony Marinaro. Tony went on a rant telling Habs fans to let the experts do their job. Let the guys and girls that are paid millions to make these decisions, make their decision. The future is bright Montreal and we’re all excited to see it come to fruits.