With the Montreal Canadiens season on hiatus, we have been taking a look back at some of their past drafts. Today, we look back and grade every pick from the 2012 NHL Draft.
The Montreal Canadiens have built up a great group of prospects in the past few years. We haven’t looked back at the most recent draft because it is a little too early to make any grand proclamations about 19 or 20 year old hockey players.
So, we have been looking back at the drafts a little earlier than that. We started with the 2017 NHL Draft and have been working our way backwards. Today, we take a look at the 2012 NHL Draft, which gave the Habs a chance to set up their team for long term success.
After an awful 2011-12 season, the Habs headed into the 2012 draft holding the third overall pick. This should have given them an opportunity to add a superstar type player to their organization. The Habs also held two second round picks, adding an extra one when they traded Hal Gill at the trade deadline to the Nashville Predators.
Their early round selections and additional second round pick gave the Habs four of the first 64 selections in the 2012 NHL Draft. Did they take advantage? Let’s take a look back and give them a grade for every selection they made.
Keep in mind, when you have the third overall selection, you are expecting a star player. When you step to the podium in the fifth round, getting a decent AHL scorer is better than most can do at that point in the draft.