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Montreal Canadiens: Grading Every Pick From The 2005 NHL Draft

By Ken MacMillan

OTTAWA, ONT - JULY 30: Fifth overall draft pick Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens poses with team general manager Bob Gainey (L) and director of player personnel Trevor Timmins (R) after being selected during the 2005 National Hockey League Draft on July 30, 2005 at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
OTTAWA, ONT - JULY 30: Fifth overall draft pick Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens poses with team general manager Bob Gainey (L) and director of player personnel Trevor Timmins (R) after being selected during the 2005 National Hockey League Draft on July 30, 2005 at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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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.

No one expected the Canadiens to take a goaltender this early in the draft. Jose Theodore won the Hart trophy three years earlier and they needed scoring. Gilbert Brule was expected to be taken, but Price has been the best goaltender in the world over the last decade. Best player available was a very wise decision by the Habs with this selection. <strong>Others </strong><b>available: </b>Gilbert Brule, Anze Kopitar, Devon Setoguchi. 1st Round. 5th Overall. CAREY PRICE. A +

Latendresse was an intriguing player in his draft year. He had size and scoring ability, but his skating was not great. He made the Habs as a 19 year old and with the benefit of hindsight, another year of Junior would have done him well. He scored 16 goals each of his first two seasons and then had 14 in 53 games during his third NHL season. He played 341 career NH games and scored 87 goals. <strong>Others available: </strong>Mason Raymond, Adam McQuaid, Kris Letang. 2nd Round. 45th Overall. GUILLAUME LATENDRESSE. B +

121st Overall. JURAJ MIKUS. C +. Mikus was a good sized, offensive centre playing in Slovakia when the Habs took a chance on him in the fourth round. He had 35 points in 30 games in their Junior league and had seven points in six games at the World Under-18 championship that year. He had a solid year in the QMJHL two years later and scored six points in six games at the World Juniors. He returned to Slovakia after that year in the QMJHL and played this past year in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Skilled player that had some potential but didn’t stay in North America. <strong>Others available: </strong>Darren Helm, Nathan Gerbe. 4th Round

Aubin was a good sized centre from Quebec putting up solid numbers in the QMJHL in 2005. He eventually signed with the Habs but split three years in the AHL and ECHL before signing elsewhere. He was a high scorer in the ECHL but never stuck in the AHL. <strong>Others available: </strong>Ryan Reaves, Darren Helm, Nathan Gerbe. 5th Round. 130th Overall. MATHIEU AUBIN. D

A. D’Agostini was a high scoring, but undersized winger so he fell to the sixth round in the draft. He played parts of three seasons but would go on to score 21 goals and 46 points in 2010-11 with the St. Louis Blues. He played a total of 321 NHL games and scored 128 points in 162 AHL games. A 20 goal season in the NHL from a sixth round pick is great value. <strong>Others available: </strong>Joe Vitale. 6th Round. 190th Overall. MATT D'AGOSTINI

A +. Kostitsyn was a highly skilled winger, but he hadn’t played outside of Belarus when he was drafted. He was great at the Under-18 tournament, but didn’t play against tough competition all that much. The Habs had drafted him brother Andrei two years earlier so they had a little extra intel on him. He would play three seasons in Montreal, scoring 24 goals and 68 points in 155 games. He scored 23 goals and 50 points in 2010-11 with the Nashville Predators after being traded. He played a total of 353 NHL games (54 more than Brule who went sixth overall) which is great value for someone taken 200th overall. <strong>Others available: </strong>Colin Greening, Anton Stralman. 7th Round. 200th Overall. SERGEI KOSTITSYN

229th Overall. PHILIPPE PAQUET. C. The Habs got a compensatory draft pick at the end of the final round for not signing Darren Langdon (seriously). Paquet was a big, right-shot defender playing high school in the United States. He played four years at Clarkson, but never played above the ECHL after turning pro. <strong>Others available: </strong>Patric Hornqvist. 7th Round

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