While everyone is focused on the first round of the NHL Entry Draft, let us take a look at nine candidates to be drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in later rounds.
The NHL Entry Draft is nearly upon us. The offseason is about to begin. I expect that I am far from the only hockey fan to be obsessively refreshing Twitter to see if any big trades or signings have been made and, more often than not, being left disappointed. I am so very excited for the Draft and for the subsequent free agent frenzy.
However, while most people are, understandably, excited for Round 1 on Tuesday evening, I find myself being more curious to see what happens on Wednesday starting at 11:30 AM EST: rounds 2 through 7 of the draft. The hype is far less extreme, but it is on this day that teams can really flesh out their rosters for years to come with solid non-superstars. Of course, some superstars do drop to the later rounds, but they are few and far between, the real value is to be had among solid mid-roster players like in the ilk of Joel Edmundson and Ben Chiarot (former second and fourth-round draft picks respectively).
Frederik Andersen and Braden Holtby were 3rd and 4th-round picks respectively and have since carved out more than stellar NHL careers; while forwards like Brendan Gallagher (5th-round), Kevin Labanc (6th round) and Tyler Bertuzzi (2nd round) have become top-6 players. It must be acknowledged that the vast majority of draft picks between rounds 2 and 7 do not reach the NHL, let alone forge a career in the league, but this makes it all the more exciting to uncover these hidden gems.
While I have tried to watch at least 3 or 4 games of the projected first-round picks of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, I have not been able to do the same for the late-round prospects. Therefore, the players I have identified in this article are a result of my reading the Elite Prospects 2020 Draft Guide which details their top-129 prospects with game reports and between 1 and 2 pages of analysis of each player. Despite this Draft Guide being my primary source of information, I have also looked at at least two other sources for the nine players I have outlined to try to negate any bias. Plus, the players I liked the profile of aren’t necessarily ones that Elite Prospects loved.
Anyway, enough of my babbling, let us jump into the nine players that I would love to see picked by the Canadiens on Wednesday afternoon.