The Montreal Canadiens draft record over the pat number of years has come under fire once again recently.
When Jesperi Kotkaniemi signed an offer sheet with the Carolina Hurricanes and was just allowed to walk away for first and third round picks, many fans were calling into question the team’s record at the draft. First rounders Alex Galchenyuk, Michael McCarron, Noah Juulsen, Nikita Scherbak and Kotkaniemi never reached their potential.
While a couple of recent first round picks, like Cole Caufield and Kaiden Guhle appear to be changing this narrative, the team appears to have a few late round steals recently as well.
One of those later round gems could be Blake Biondi. He was a bit of an unknown when he was taken in the 4th round of the 2020 NHL Draft by the Canadiens. Biondi played high school hockey in his draft year, lighting it up with 76 points in 25 games for Hermantown. He also played at the Ivan Hlinka tournament for the USA, scoring two points in four games and he suited up the year previous at the World Under-17 Tournament as well, putting up three points in five contests.
Still, there were questions about how high a high school player should be drafted and there were concerns about the difficulty of stepping into a NCAA lineup directly from high school. Most players would have played in the USHL or on the national development team before skating in an NCAA game at the age of 18.
The 6’0″ and 181 pound Biondi stepped right into the NCAA and on one of the best teams in the 2020-21 season. The University of Minnesota-Duluth was a stacked team last year and Biondi was pushed down to the fourth line. Some nights he barely saw the ice and others he would be scratched.
Minnesota-Duluth would have a terrific season, going all the way to the national semi-finals before losing in overtime to Massachusetts who would win the national title. While Biondi played a small part in that success, he has been terrific to begin this season.
Once again, his team is expected to be a dominant squad. This time Biondi expects to play a much bigger role. He has only moved up to the third line and is playing right wing, but he is on fire out of the gates.
While the 19 year old scored just five points in 26 games last season, he has already passed that total in the first month of this season. After six contests, that have included five wins for Minnesota-Duluth, Biondi has scored three goals and added three assists.
He has also scored all of those points at even strength as he doesn’t get much time on the power play. At least not yet. If he continues to produce a point per game at even strength the team will be forced to find a role for him on the power play soon.
It is only six games into the season, but after a quiet freshman season, it is great to see Biondi having so much success immediately in year two. He was unknown when he was drafted but he is making a name for himself right now.