NHL Draft Primer: Who will the Montreal Canadiens Target in Round 1?
For the first time since 2018, the Buffalo Sabres came out on top and won the NHL draft lottery, securing their second first overall pick in the last four drafts. This will be the 10th straight year Buffalo has made a lottery selection. Other notable spots are the Seattle Kraken making their first-ever pick at second overall, a pick that was expected to go to the Ducks, who will now pick third. Every other pick went where it was expected. A little boring if you ask me.
Having made it beyond the first round of the playoffs, the Montreal Canadiens will be picking in the back quarter of the draft. So Who will be off the board by then? With Montreal set to pick no earlier than 25th overall, I compared draft boards from nhl.com, Sportsnet and Elite Prospects to see who the experts think will be long gone.
Across these websites, 14 players were consensus top 20 prospects. Among forwards are: Dylan Guenther, Kent Johnson, William Eklund, Matthew Beniers, Chaz Lucius, Cole Sillinger, Mason McTavish, Fabian Lysell, and Aatu Räty. Among defencemen, the Habs should miss out on: Owen Power, Luke Hughes, Simon Edvinsson, and Brandt Clarke. Additionally, the top 20 included one goalie, Jesper Wallstedt.
Beyond these players, another 14 players appeared somewhere in the top 20 of these lists. These players will be considered Montreal’s targets. If Montreal picks after 28, and hopefully they do, then maybe luck will continue and someone will fall to them.
Four of these players can be scratched out immediately, as the organization’s need for a left-shooting defenceman or right-shooting winger is very low. After doubling up left shooting wingers in last year’s draft, the Habs would probably prefer to look elsewhere, which makes those four players less likely to be picked.
The Habs can likely wait until later in the draft to go after a center, given the playoff success of Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Nick Suzuki, and Jake Evans; as well as Ryan Poehling’s great season in Laval. That is where right-shooting D-man Corson Ceulemans comes in.
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At 6’2 and over 200 pounds, he clearly meets Bergevin’s size requirements. Ceulemans is slated to play for the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA this coming season, a program the Habs are very familiar with. Being the only right-shot blueliner in this group, Montreal may need to be aggressive to get him. But without many other holes in the pipeline, it seems like a price worth paying.