Heading into the 2022 NHL Draft, the entire hockey world has its sights set on the Montreal Canadiens. No one really knew what the Habs were going to do, and with 14 picks there was a wide range of what Kent Hughes could do as well.
In the end, the Canadians broke with the long-held consensus and selected towering Slovakian winger Juraj Slafkowski first overall, setting off a truly chaotic first round that left many of us in the press watching in stunned silence. Slafkowski was not selected at the second. According to Nick Bobrov, the team was still deep in debate as of Thursday morning, and when the time came, the team planted its flag next to the big wing.
This will prove to be the defining trend of the weekend. The Canadiens, coming off a disastrous regular season, weren’t going to play it safe in their rebuild.
Make no mistake, all draft picks are risks, and Slafkowski isn’t immune to that, and concerns about his projection based on his play in the League are fair. However, Montreal sees enough burgeoning potential in him to command an incredibly high ceiling. At 18, Slafkovsky is a physical specimen at 6’4” and 229 lbs, but he doesn’t play a brute force, runaway style. There’s skill and talent in that huge frame and a desire to prove he can be different.
There would have been nothing wrong with going with the “safe” option in Shane Wright, but the Canadiens trusted their process and addressed the obvious need for another young center in the organization. Somehow, almost incredibly, the Canadiens overcame their first overall shock by acquiring Kirby Dach in two trades with the New York Islanders and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Habs traded Alexander Romanov and the 98th overall pick for the 13th overall pick and flipped that and the 66th overall pick for Dach.
Boldt pretty much highlights what Hughes did with this trade, even though Chicago is in dire straits thanks to the impending penalty for recapture Duncan Keith. Dah, a former third-round pick, seemed stagnant in Chicago, where the team embarked on something of a rebuild of its own, but a rebuild that included trading away two of their youngest available assets. Both Hughes and Kyle Davidson are new GMs placed in extremely difficult situations, the only difference being that Hughes didn’t seem to sweat the pressure and calmly added a 21-year-old center to his organization. Dach, like Slafkowski, has all the physical gifts to be a dominant force on any given night, but injuries and a lackluster Chicago team have prevented him from scratching the surface of that.
A former Canadiens GM said “centers are hard to find,” which is true in some respects; it’s not every day a 21-year-old ranked third gets hit on the trade market. At the same time, you can’t passively wait to make an impact on your team, courage is the best way to help during your recovery and that’s what Hughes did. Dach is a gamble on the part of the Canadiens GM, but has huge potential for profit for the franchise if things go according to plan.
Trading away a young quarterback who many had high hopes for is hard to swallow, but the new front office saw what they had in players like Kayden Guele, Jordan Harris and even Justin Barron, giving them an opportunity to improve the team elsewhere. Like drafting Slafkowski and trading for Dach, it’s a move that carries risk, but if the Canadiens aren’t willing to try and take risks, the recovery will take a lot longer.
Without going too deep into picks after the second round, the risk-taking Canadiens continued to look for high-ceiling prospects in their first four picks overall. Philippe Messard and Lane Hutson are insanely skilled players. They have the talent profile to become offensive contributors in the NHL if their development progresses properly. Hutson, in particular, stood out on a team of high-profile draft picks in the USNTDP, leaving the program as the second-highest scoring defenseman of all time behind Cam York. Yes, Hutson is a modest 5’8″ and probably weighs 160 pounds after a heavy meal, but his skills on the ice are undeniable. He skates like a breeze, challenging defenders to try to slow him down as he hangs around them. With his size, Hutson has had to learn how to match up against bigger opponents, and even with all of his talents, his ability to develop his game to overcome the size disparity will help him.
He’s far from a safe stay-at-home defenseman, but the Canadiens have learned that you need a puck-moving star to make things happen from your blue line.
Finally, there’s Philippe Messard, who, like Hutson, has all the skating tools and hand-eye coordination to be a terrifying threat on the ice. His physical side isn’t there yet, but his courage to go one-on-one with opponents – and often beat them with skill alone – is commendable. The risks are there, but it’s also a huge plus for Messard, who said he wants to play in North America next year. Slafkovsky is also likely to cross the pond, giving Montreal fans and possibly Laval Rocket fans some really exciting prospects to watch.
To top things off, the Canadiens had a huge opportunity in front of them with this NHL Draft. With over a dozen picks at their disposal and needs across the organization, they emerged from the shadows of the previous regime. While there have been some high-ceiling picks made in previous years (see Joshua Roy), we’ve rarely seen Montreal go out and do so many in a row. Hughes understands the gravity of the situation he finds himself in and that the Habs have to take a risk to get better.
It’s a stark change from previous drafts where the picks could be seen as safe and that their potential impact on the high-end NHL wasn’t too likely. There’s a chance this draft could be viewed as an absolute disaster if things go sideways, but it could also become a crowning moment for the Hughes-Jeff Gorton duo if their picks live up to their potential.
It’s going to be a wild ride as we wait to see what the future holds, but one thing is certain right now, it’s a very different Habs organization now.
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