Canadiens: High Draft Pick Will Pay Off, Even If It's Not Shane Wright

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The Montreal Canadiens are not going to in the 2022 playoffs and are likely to finish near the bottom of the standings this season.

It is still kinda early in the year, but a top ten pick is all but guaranteed already and a top five pick appears likely. No one can be assured of a top pick, because that is literally chosen via a lottery. In fact, the top two picks are chosen via lottery meaning if the Canadiens finish last in the standings, that just means they are guaranteed a pick somewhere in the top three.

The big prize in this year’s NHL Draft is Shane Wright, and he is going to be a star in the NHL very soon. But tanking to try and land one specific player makes no sense in the NHL anymore. This ain’t 1984 when finishing last gave you the right to choose Mario Lemieux no questions asked.

The lottery system in place now gives the worst team in the league about a 25% chance of actually keeping the first overall pick. So, hoping the Habs lose a lot this season so they get Shane Wright is not a smart plan. There is just no way of putting yourself in a good position to win the first overall draft pick in the current lottery system.

Luckily for the Canadiens, there are many other terrific prospects in this year’s NHL Draft. We will see a handful of them on the World Junior stage in the coming weeks, but there are many more around the world that would be terrific additions to the Canadiens organization.

Maybe tanking for Wright is a fool’s errand, but finishing low to grab one of these three players would pay off huge dividends in the long run.

Matthew Savoie

The Montreal Canadiens could use help at every position, and they haven’t even started trading off veterans yet. So, let’s forget about drafting by position or need, and just focus on the best players that could be available early in the draft.

Matthew Savoie is a centre playing for the Winnipeg Ice of the Western Hockey League. He was the first overall pick of the then Kootenay Ice in 2019 and had seven points in 22 games for the Ice as a 15 year old.

Last season, with the uncertainty around a WHL season, Savoie headed to the United States to play in the USHL, which is essentially their equivalent of the WHL. Savoie scored 38 points in 34 games for the Dubuque Fighting Saints. He didn’t play the full season, so he was well behind Canadiens prospect Sean Farrell who led the league with 101 points. However, Savoie’s points per game as a 16 year old ranked just outside the top ten in a league filled with 19 year olds.

Now, Savoie is back with the Winnipeg Ice and he is dominating again. He is playing centre on a powerhouse Winnipeg team and is leading the league in scoring as a 17 year old with 41 points in 26 games. He has 14 goals and is averaging more than an assist per game, showing off his playmaking abilities, with 27.

The Canadiens, like any team, could use an elite offensive centre. He is not Shane Wright, but he would be a terrific consolation prize with a top five pick.

Simon Nemec

Simon Nemec also is proving to be worthy of a top five pick. He also happens to be the kind of player that the Montreal Canadiens are desperate to add. Again, we aren’t going to suggest drafting by position, but if the best player available also happens to fill a huge need that is just a nice bonus.

Nemec is what most in the game would call a puck moving defenceman. Marc Bergevin would call him an unnecessary component of an NHL team. Bergevin loved defenders like Ben Chiarot, Joel Edmundson and Karl Alzner. Big, physical and hard to play against (physically). Sometimes, they are not that hard to play against when you just have to skate around them.

Anyway, I digress. The point is, Nemec is a great skater and can move the puck around like a playmaking centre. He isn’t small, at 6’1″ and 192 pounds but he is more likely to get away from another team’s forecheck by being quick and agile rather than trying to bowl over anyone.

As a right shot defender, Nemec would start in the organization behind Jeff Petry and David Savard but that is fine as he would bide his time to develop defensively while showing off his terrific skating and offensive abilities.

Nemec played at the World Juniors last year as a 17 year old and scored four points in five games. He will be back there for Slovakia once again this season and should be a huge presence on their blue line.

Joakim Kemell

The prize of the 2022 NHL Draft is going to be Shane Wright, but a Finnish winger named Joakim Kemell is starting to make a lot of noise as well.

Kemell is off to a tremendous start in Liiga, scoring 18 points including 12 goals in just 19 games. Point per game seasons just don’t happen for 17 year old players and that is no exaggeration, it has never happened. Mikael Granlund came the closest scoring 40 points in 43 games.

Other top scorers in the NHL from Finland were not even close to this production at the same age. In his draft year, Patrick Laine scored 17 goals and 33 points in 46 games. Alexander Barkov had 21 goals and 48 points in 53 games before being drafted second overall.

Kemell missed nine games last month with injury but is still leading his team in goals and points and sits third in the league in goals. He should play a starring role for Finland at the upcoming World Juniors.

The Canadiens could always use more goal scoring and if they are about to embark on a rebuild, adding a sniper like Kemell would be a terrific start.

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