Montreal Canadiens: A Qualifier, and a Shot at Number One
By Scott Cowan
This year’s NHL draft lottery was odd, to say the least. With the number one pick going to a qualifying team, the Montreal Canadiens fall onto that list.
Throughout most of these past few months, I’ve tried to stray away from the obvious elephant in the room regarding the NHL season. The Covid-19, or Coronavirus, pandemic is one that has shook our world to its core, and affected all aspects of our lives, sports included.
However, while my home province of Quebec is gradually reopening its businesses hoping there wont be a second wave, pro sports haven’t been as lucky. Despite their best efforts, the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB all have their seasons still up in the air, with some making more progress than others.
For the most part, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and his associates have done a solid job at trying to convincingly build a plan to gradually resume play for this NHL season, and have thrown in news updates every couple of weeks to keep fans interested. I haven’t really been paying attention to these for the most part, preferring to engage in more of a reflection of this mostly lost season for our hometown Canadiens.
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That was until, deputy commissioner Bill Daly appeared on tv Friday night with seven squares in his hand, or so we thought. The draft lottery has always been an interesting event for me, seeing which teams (possibly your favorite) get a shot at the first overall pick in that year’s NHL draft.
While the Canadiens had a poor season by most accounts this year, it wasn’t enough to nab them a chance at one of the top seven picks like what happened with Jesperi Kotkaniemi two years ago. In this case, all eyes were on the Detroit Red Wings, who endured one of the worst statistical seasons in NHL history, and the Ottawa Senators, who had two top picks as a result of the San Jose Sharks ineptitude.
Rimouski Oceanic captain and QMJHL star Alexis Lafreniere is the consensus number 1 prospect this year and should be a lock to go first overall. With 112 points in 52 games, he’s proven his worth as a potential elite scorer in the NHL, however it remains to be seen whether he becomes the next Connor McDavid, or Nail Yakupov.
As Mr. Daly called out the draft order one by one, the expected teams fell further and further in the rankings. The Red Wings got the fourth pick, the LA Kings went number two, and the Senators got the third and fifth picks in the draft, setting themselves up for a bright future ahead, especially with the talent available in this year’s draft. Same goes for the Canadiens, where players like Cole Perfetti and Jamie Drysdale had most Habs fans intrigued as to what player they would pick to supplement Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Kotkaniemi.
So, with all that being said, who got number one? They didn’t say. Just before the order was announced, Daly mentioned that an 8th mystery team had been added to the list, something which had never been mentioned before the lottery. That mystery team, who will be determined by the proposed qualifying rounds in this year’s 24 team playoff format, went number one.
Now, you can take whatever side you want from this result. Whether this was rigged to fit in with the NHL’s return to play plan, which could backfire horribly should they have to cancel the season, or whether it is simply a matter of the luck of the draw. Either way, it now presents an interesting point for the Canadiens, and any of the other teams that were out of the playoff picture before this proposed 24 team playoff format.
While Lafreniere has all the makings of the great French Canadians that made up the Habs glory days, he was well out of the teams’ wheelhouse for pretty much the entire season. Montreal has struggled in most aspects of their game this year but were still in the playoff hunt during some parts of this season, leaving them with an even 31-31-9 record, and an assignment to the middle of the NHL entry draft board.
While this still presents GM Marc Bergevin and his staff with a host of talented players, Lafreniere has absorbed most of the draft coverage for a reason, with forwards like Tim Stutzle and Quinton Byfield only jumping into the conversation about halfway through the year. Now that the Canadiens are a part of these teams vying for Lafreniere, do they stand a chance at acquiring him? Yes and no.
While its safe to say that the Pittsburgh Penguins have the Canadiens number should they play them as scheduled in this proposed playoff format, stranger things have happened, and as my colleague Omar White put it, players don’t tank, teams tank. As rough as this past season has been for Montreal, the players still want to prove their worth, and its been clear that this Habs team, above all, has some fight in them.
However, the Canadiens were the lowest ranked out of the 24 teams in this playoff format, which does increase the potential chances of Lafreniere heading to Montreal. Of course, this result means, just like the NHL calendar, there will be a phase two of the NHL draft lottery. If the Habs do lose to the Penguins, they will be joining the seven other play-in losers in phase two of the draft lottery and each team will have an equal chance at landing Lafreniere.
In the end, it will remain to be seen what happens with both the NHL season and its draft, and where Lafreniere or any other player will end up. While it could be the Montreal Canadiens, at the moment their just another one, of these 16 mystery teams.