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 2005 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 2005 NHL Draft.
The 2005 draft was a unique experience since there was no NHL hockey played in 2004-05. The league held a lottery to determine the draft order and the Habs were fortunate enough to end up with the fifth overall pick.
The Habs would make a few deals involving draft picks, including packaging a late second round pick and an early third rounder to move up in the second round. This gave them the 45th overall selection in addition to their first, fourth, fifth, sixth and a pair of seventh round picks.
When assigning grades for picks, it of course matters when the pick was made. Getting a third line winger in the first round is okay, but getting the same player in the 7th round is a home run.
So, let’s take a look at how the Canadiens did with their seven selections in the 2005 NHL Draft.