Canadiens: Three First Round Projects To Pursue In The Off-Season

Yes, I know obvious choice is obvious, but quite frankly I can’t do a piece discussing failed or in this case struggling former first rounders without mentioning Patrick, the former second overall pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2017 Draft who in essence completely butchered the franchise’s future, just based on who went after. Cale Makar, Miro Heiskanen, Elias Pettersson, Suzuki (yes really), and Kailer Yamamoto just to name a few. While Flyers GM Ron Hextall (and seemingly only Hextall) saw Patrick as a future first line centre, that entirely and utterly has not been the case, though this admittedly is really no fault of his own. After posting 41-61-102 totals over 72 games with the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings in an immensely impressive sophomore season, Patrick struggled out the gate in two underwhelming sophomore seasons with Philly before, well, injuries happened.

With a migraine disorder knocking him out for the entire 2019-20 season, Patrick has struggled with numerous injury problems since his sophomore season in 2018-19, and as such has seen his production drop off a cliff, with just 6-10-16 totals over his last 77 games in the past two seasons. In spite of all of this however, I still don’t think that Patrick is an entirely lost cause, just not in the role he was originally envisioned to play. While it’s clear that his offensive abilities leave much to be desired, Patrick has shown glimpses of potential as a defensive presence and showed occasional promise as a penalty killer at times over his first two seasons in Philly (we don’t talk about the third season).

While he’s still yet to have a full season under his belt in three years and is need of some more refining in many ways after adjusting to a new system since being dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights earlier this season, I quite frankly think Patrick has all the tools to be a solid third line center. While his trade value is still up in the air in many ways, throwing a mid round pick and a lower-level prospect like William Lagesson could net an interesting return for the Habs, and a chance for Patrick to finally prove he’s more than just the guy who went before everyone else.