Montreal Canadiens: Five Best Draft Picks Since 2000

The Montreal Canadiens have had hits and misses at the NHL Draft over the past 20 years. Here, we take a look at the five best selections they made in the past 20 drafts.

The Montreal Canadiens were scheduled to host the 2020 NHL Draft at the Bell Centre in about two months. With the league on hiatus and the world as we know it on pause, that draft will not be taking place as usual. There will be a 2020 NHL Draft, but it won’t look anything like it has in the past.

Whenever it does take place, and whatever it looks like, the Habs will have plenty of opportunities to improve their team. They currently hold 14 picks in the seven round event and with general manager Marc Bergevin‘s penchant for making moves at the draft, he could add even more before the dust settles.

This gives the team many chances to add an impact player. We have seen great players coming out of every round of the draft lately. Obviously it is easier to find a future star in the first few picks, but the Habs were able to add Jake Evans, Brett Stapley and Cayden Primeau with recent seventh round picks.

All three could be draft steals. You don’t really expect much with a seventh round pick, but somehow the Habs have been adding players that can make some sort of impact late in the draft. Getting a fourth line centre like Evans with a seventh rounder is excellent value.

Of course, getting a similar player in the first round, like when the Habs drafted Kyle Chipchura, isn’t exactly great value. It’s better than nothing, but you want your first round picks to turn into top six forwards or top four defenceman to get real value out of that pick.

We have seen the Habs add great players late, and we have seen them turn early picks into next to nothing. With no games to talk about lately, we have started to put together some “Top 5” posts about various topics. Today, we take a look back at the five best draft picks the Habs made in the past 20 years.

#5: Tie between Jaroslav Halak and Mark Streit

For many years now, the NHL Draft is a seven round affair. That was not the case in the past as the event would go on and one for twice that length many years ago. It has been shortened up over the years before landing on the seven round event it is now in 2005.

So, to say the Habs got great value when they selected Jaroslav Halak in the 9th round, 271st overall in 2003 and Mark Streit in the 9th round, 262nd overall in 2004 is an understatement.

Halak was playing Junior hockey in Slovakia when the Habs took a late chance on him. He was terrific at the World Under-18 Championships that year which put him on their radar. He worked him way up from the ECHL to the AHL before making his NHL debut with the Habs in 2006-07.

In four seasons with Montreal, Halak had a 56-34-7 record with a 2.62 GAA and a .919 SV%. He carried the team to the Eastern Conference Final in 2010 before being traded for Lars Eller. He still plays in the NHL and had a terrific season with the Boston Bruins.

Streit was 26 years old when he was drafted by the Habs. He would play three seasons in Montreal, scoring 25 goals and 109 points in 205 games as a hybrid winger-defenceman who was dynamite on the power play.

#4: Tomas Plekanec

Tomas Plekanec was playing pro in the Czech Republic as a teenager when the Habs drafted him in the 3rd round, with the 71st overall pick in the 2001 draft. Most third round picks are lucky to play more than 100 games in the NHL, but Plekanec would go on to play over 1000.

Plekanec played 15 seasons in Montreal, quickly earning a second line centre role with his consistent, solid two-way play. He settled into that role for over a decade and was a guy the Canadiens counted on when they were down a goal, up a goal or tied late in a game.

He was a leader who played in all situations and reached the 70 point plateau while garnering some Selke votes throughout his career. That is terrific value from a third round pick.

#1: Carey Price

Most of the best draft picks are later ones that aren’t expected to do much at the NHL level, but they become impact players. Jaroslav Halak and Mark Streit were 9th round picks who become NHL mainstays for a decade or more, Gallagher was a 5th round pick who became a 30 goal scorer.

That doesn’t mean you can’t make a fantastic draft pick early in the draft. The Montreal Canadiens ended up with the 5th overall pick in the 2005 NHL Draft that took place after a cancelled 2004-05 NHL season due to the lockout.

Everyone knew that Sidney Crosby would be the first overall selection. After Bobby Ryan, Jack Johnson and Benoit Pouliot were selected, it seemed obvious that the Habs would select Gilbert Brule. The Edmonton native had scored 39 goals and 87 points in 70 games for the Vancouver Giants and was ranked as high as second by most draft pundits.

A draft eligible player finishing third overall in scoring in the tough WHL was a pretty enticing player. However, the Habs decided to pass on Brule to select goaltender Carey Price.

Since then, Price has become the cornerstone of the Montreal Canadiens franchise. He has played 682 games, winning 348 of them which is a franchise record for the Habs. He won the Hart Trophy, Vezina Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award in 2015 and is responsible for anything the team has accomplished in the past decade.

In an alternate universe, the Habs select Anze Kopitar with this pick and keep Halak as their goaltender. That would have been interesting. However, conventional wisdom at the draft would have seen them select Gilbert Brule who played 299 career NHL games, scoring just 32 points and now plays for the Kunlun Red Star in the KHL.

Taking Carey Price with the 5th overall pick in 2005 was a gutsy decision by Bob Gainey who was the team’s GM at the time. However, it was the best decision the Montreal Canadiens have made at the NHL Draft in, at least, the past 20 years.