If the opportunity is there, the Montreal Canadiens must draft Marco Rossi

The draft lottery is going to be an odd one this year, but if it ends up with the Montreal Canadiens landing in the top-five, they should select Marco Rossi.

There’s a reason why the Montreal Canadiens are very excited for Cole Caufield. Although the team has it’s key producers in Tomas Tatar, Brendan Gallagher and Max Domi – more so last year – there still isn’t enough lethal talent on the roster.

Montreal had 39 games season, where they scored two or fewer goals. 25 of those games were losses. Whether it wasn’t getting the right bounces or the power play not being able to click, even though it performed better this year, the team found themselves not being able to get goals when they desperately needed them.

Those answers are hopefully coming with Caufield being at the epicentre of that optimism. There’s also the growth of Nick Suzuki based on what he was able to do this year as well as potential bounce-backs from Domi and Jonathan Drouin. However, the Montreal Canadiens need to keep putting themselves in a position to add elite talent to the organization.

This year is going to be weird. The Montreal Canadiens were in prime territory to get the eighth overall pick at the 2020 NHL Draft with a slight chance of an upgrade via a lottery win. With the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks getting lucky last year, the realm of possibility for the stars to align in Montreal’s favour was strong.

Unfortunately, the ‘Return to Play’ plan nixed that option for the Habs. With the fear of a team making the playoffs and winning the draft lottery, the league proposed a change up to the event, which pretty much guarantees a Detroit Red Wings victory. Consequently, the highest the Montreal Canadiens can select is fourth overall.