Canadiens: Now Is Not The Time To Fret The Winning Streak

Montreal is not exactly the typical rebuilding team. As said before, Montreal has been bad for a while now, and ex-General Manager Marc Bergevin executed his famous re-tooling plan, which amounted to years of “Let’s make the playoffs and see what happens” and one Stanley Cup Final appearance in almost 10 years.

But that re-tooling was not without its merits. Sure, it probably wouldn’t have bore the fruit of a Stanley Cup winner, but there was something there. One of Bergevin’s better moves was trading Max Pacioretty for Tomas Tatar, a second round pick in 2019, and Nick Suzuki. Tatar filled in nicely on the top line (at least in the regular season), and the second round pick became Samuel Fagemo. Fagemo’s draft pick was then flipped to the L.A. Kings for a 3rd round pick and a 5th round pick in 2019. The 5th round pick was used to select Jacob Leguerrier. But the 3rd round pick became Mattias Norlinder, who is looking like a great pick. Norlinder has played just 6 games with Montreal and needs seasoning, but looks to be a really good offensive defenseman.

Another great move by Bergevin was trading away aging forwards Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weise for Phillip Danault and a second round pick in 2018. Everyone knows the story of Phillip Danault, but that second round pick was used to select Alexander Romanov. Romanov has slowly been building up steam and becoming better and better each year in the NHL and should be found in Montreal’s top 4 for years to come.

And there are other draft picks that have the possibility of panning out really well. Cole Caufield is a borderline star already, I mean come on, he already has an iconic celly after only being in the league for less than a year. Kaiden Guhle is looking like a steadfast option on the back end. No matter what you think of Logan Mailloux, he has been putting up some stellar numbers in the OHL. As a member of the Hamilton Bulldogs, Jan Mysak has been doing great.

There is a lot of leg-work that has already been done in this re-tooling. Truly the team could use another really good offensive and defensive prospect, and the team is looking at a possible contender.

The 2021 draft has been the fight for Wright for a long time now. Shane Wright was called the runaway 1st overall pick in this years draft from the start of the year and before. Wright’s performance this year has blemished that star a little bit, but he is still considered the number 1 pick.

But it is not clear cut. Wright is no Connor McDavid, or Sidney Crosby. He is likely a more Anze Kopitar type, which is not awful by any stretch, but not definitive. And he is no Connor Bedard. Because good Lord, have you seen Connor Bedard?

Yeah, if this was next year, or if Bedard was born a year earlier, I would not be talking like this. Maybe next year we should be talking about the Montreal Canadiens failing hard for Bedard, but this year is a little different.

The top 10 in Bob Mackenzie’s most recent 2022 draft ranking are:

1. Shane Wright, Centre, Kingston Frontenacs
2. Logan Cooley, Centre, USNTDP Juniors
3. Joakim Kemell, Right Wing, JYP
4. Matt Savoie, Centre, Winnipeg Ice
5. Juraj Slafkovsky, Left Wing, TPS
6. Ivan Miroshnichenko, Left Wing, Omskie Yastreby
7. David Jiricek, Defender, HC Skoda Plzen
8. Danila Yurov, Right Wing, Metallurg Magnitogorsk
9. Simon Nemec, Defender, HK Nitra
10. Conor Geekie, Centre, Winnipeg Ice

So, obviously the strength in this draft is the offence. Only two defenders made Bob Mackenzie’s list, #7 David Jiricek and #9 Simon Nemec. That isn’t a surprise, as it generally takes longer for defenders to develop, and is harder to evaluate how a defenseman will pan out.

It is not like the Canadiens are in a position to be choosy on what position they can select. Sure, the centre position is relatively strong with Suzuki, Dvorak, Evans and Poehling. But Dvorak is the oldest, and a player that can slot into a 1A/1B position with Suzuki or a 2nd string centre (think Wright or Cooley) would be beneficial. The winger position is busy for Montreal, but most of them are aging players that will not be as effective at the end of a rebuild, like Brendan Gallagher, Mike Hoffman, Josh Anderson and Jonathan Drouin. And as stated, though Guhle and Mailloux are succeeding this year, no one truly knows how they will pan out.

But there is also a lot of movement in these rankings. Brad Lambert is not in Bob Mackenzie’s top 10, but can be found as high as #2 on other’s lists. Same with Frank Nazar. The general outlook seems to be that Wright is the most surefire prospect, but others have higher ceilings, but are less certain. So it kind of all evens out, depending on your point of view.

So there is not a big gulf of difference between selecting Shane Wright and Logan Cooley, or Matt Savoie, or Brad Lambert. Not like next year with Bedard.

So we should not worry about this winning streak. It is kind of the best of both worlds. The Canadiens were so bad early in the season that there is no question that they will wind up with a good draft pick. In 9 games in February, Cole Caufield has scored 6 goals and 10 points. Nick Suzuki was an All Star this year, mostly because there weren’t any other good options on Montreal this season. This win streak is without a doubt a good thing for these young players, while the season has already been bad enough that it doesn’t really matter in the big season picture anyway.