For the second straight offseason, the Montreal Canadiens have ended up with the fifth overall pick in the NHL Draft.
That puts them in a bit of a strange spot.
With this year’s draft class being a tossup after Macklin Celebrini is inevitably selected first overall by the San Jose Sharks, there’s no telling who exactly will be on the board once it’s the Canadiens’ turn to hit the podium in Vegas.
According to TSN insider Bob McKenzie’s latest draft ranking, the projected top 10 features a range of forwards and defencemen.
- Macklin Celebrini (C)
- Ivan Demidov (C)
- Anton Silayev (D)
- Artyom Levshunov (D)
- Cayden Lindstrom (C)
- Sam Dickinson (D)
- Zayne Parekh (D)
- Zeev Buium (D)
- Konsta Helenius (C/RW)
- Tij Iginla (C)
This sort of variety and the uncertainty of who will be taken before could force the Canadiens to ask themselves an important question: “Do we simply take the best player available or aim to fill one of our positional needs?”
If the answer to the first part of that question is yes, Montreal could very well end up with a defenceman like Dickinson, Parekh, or even Silayev, who, despite his high projections, may be passed over by teams seeking offensive talent.
The issue is that Montreal already possesses a very deep defensive prospect pool that includes young blueliners like Logan Mailloux, Lane Hutson, Adam Engstrom, William Trudeau, Bogdan Konyushkov, and David Reinbacher—last year’s fifth overall pick.
Their backend at the NHL level also features a handful of young guys in Arber Xhekaj, Jayden Struble, Jordan Harris, Justin Barron, and Kaiden Guhle.
While having too many talented young defencemen is not the worst problem to have, if the Habs use their No. 5 pick to take another, they would eventually have to make a trade or two just to ensure that all their blueliner get adequate playing time.
Although the Canadiens’ system also includes a few exciting forward prospects, such as Owen Beck, Oliver Kapanen, and Sean Farrell, Montreal is certainly less stacked on the offensive end.
So, if they’re looking to bolster their top end and bring more talent to their top six, they may look past some highly touted defensive talent to get their guy.
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