Montreal Canadiens: Way Too Early Predictions for Habs Offseason

Habs Draft Jack Hughes.

While predicting who the Canadiens will select first overall is easy, identifying who else they will draft in the first round is a little more difficult. They have the Calgary Flames first round pick from the Tyler Toffoli trade which will be a late first round pick since the Flames won their division.

The Toffoli trade was one of the biggest made by general manager Kent Hughes since he took over. In some of those bigger moves, Hughes has shown a penchant to go with the guy he is familiar with.

He said when he was hired that he wouldn’t be making a coaching change, but then he decided to shock everyone and replace Dominique Ducharme with Martin St. Louis who had no coaching experience at the pro level. But, Hughes was familiar with St. Louis since they both had kids playing for Northeastern and they spent a lot of time together at rinks over the years.

One of those kids in Jack Hughes, who is ranked by most to be drafted late in the first round of the upcoming draft, or possibly in the second round. Well, the Canadiens have a late first round pick from the Flames and the very first pick in the second round.

If general manager Hughes likes to go with guys he is familiar with, he couldn’t be much more familiar with anyone in the hockey world than his own son.

Hughes, Jack that is, and obviously not the one who was drafted first overall a couple years ago and plays for the New Jersey Devils, is a skilled centre who played his first season of college hockey in 2021-22 with the Northeastern Huskies. The same team that has St. Louis son on it, as well as Habs prospects Jordan Harris (before signing) and Jayden Struble.