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Montreal Canadiens Day Off and The Draft Lottery

By Mat Germain|

Tonight’s the night that could alter the face of a franchise for the next decade or more. The Montreal Canadiens have the day off, sure, but they’ll also be peaking over at who wins what is really one of the most important draft lotteries of recent times. It will take place at 8 p.m. ET and is aired on TVA and CBC. The difference between getting one of the top 2 picks and falling to 3rd or beyond is more significant than we’ve had in a while. For franchises such as the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres, attaining one of the top 2 picks is simply the best hope to turn around the hopes of franchises that so desperately need top-end talent.

Draft Lottery info:

The odds break down as follows for the top 10:

  1. Buffalo 20%
  2. Arizona 13.5%
  3. Edmonton 11.5%
  4. Toronto 9.5%
  5. Carolina 8.5%
  6. New Jersey 7.5%
  7. Philadelphia 6.5%
  8. Columbus 6%
  9. San Jose 5%
  10. Colorado 3.5%

Sadly, the Habs have no shot at all. Let’s take a quick look at the worse kept secrets of recent time, the top picks that are Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, and then we’ll move on to what the Montreal Canadiens may be targeting when they get to select a player later on in the draft.

CONNOR McDAVID: THE CANADIAN

Here’s the beast of the draft. Playing for the Erie Otters, he finished the season with 120 points in only 47 regular season games. His points came from 44 goals and 76 assists, and his +/- rating wound up being a whopping +60!! Having said that, it’s still a far cry from Bobby Smith‘s OHL record 182 points, but this is a different hockey era.

Here are a few of his highlights before we go on.

You don’t get a player like Connor often. He’s the full package, offensively, defensively, physically, mentally, he’s just everything you want in a player. Did I mention he’s also a big time leader at a very young age? He’s got a gold medal from the World Junior championships and he was a complete leader on that team.

JACK EICHEL: THE AMERICAN

Maybe it’s because he’s playing hockey outside of the CHL, but there’s a chance that Jack Eichel is not getting his due before the NHL draft takes place. Playing for the Boston University team, his 2014-15 season saw him attain 71 points in 40 games. He also Captained the U-20 U.S. team at the World Junior championships, finishing the tournament with 4 points in 5 games and a -3 rating.

You can look at any ranking before the draft and they all say the same thing: 2nd

  • Hockeyprospects (2nd), McKeen’s Hockey (2nd), NHL Central Scouting (2nd), ISS Hockey (2nd), ect… In fact, I haven’t been able to find 1 ranking placing him ahead of McDavid. Some ponder about it, but none actually make the ranking change.

But before we get into why some shouldn’t be so quick to believe this is the case, let’s find out more about Jack, whose favourite player in the NHL is Sydney Crosby:

I know this is likely an obvious choice, McDavid over Eichel, but a lot of scouts believe Eichel may be the most ready to help an NHL team out tomorrow. The reasoning is that he has more experience, a more complete defensive game, and more strength to be effective in the NHL. I’m not sure that I, as an NHL GM, would ever consider taking the best player of today simply because I’m impatient about waiting for a mega-star’s potential to be realized.

Connor McDavid is the best player to come through the draft since Sydney Crosby. He’s a once a decade pick. 100 times out of 100, you take him over Eichel.

So as much as I’d like to give McDavid some competition, he’s in a league of his own. Everyone else is playing for 2nd place and beyond.

As a Habs fan, you can’t help but think about how great it would be to land such a player. But not all is lost for the Habs fan. You must know by now that the Habs are one of the best teams out there when it comes to finding talent later than the 1st round in the draft. Although they found their rock in Carey Price in the 1st round as well as 2nd game hero Alex Galchenyuk 3rd overall, they got Tomas Plekanec, Max Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher, and P.K. Subban in later rounds.

Enjoy watching the 2015 NHL Draft lottery folks, it’s going to make one team’s day and crush the dreams of many other teams.

I’ll finish my thoughts with this: mark my words, if the Toronto Maple Leafs win the lottery tonight, there very well be a parade in downtown Toronto. Leaf fans will lose their minds. It would be the biggest thing to happen to Toronto fans since the Blue Jays won their 2nd World Series in the early 90s.

In order to revive what seems to be a dying rivalry, I hope Toronto wins the lottery.

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