Montreal Canadiens: Let’s Not Ruin Shane Wright Please
Okay, I’m going to ruin some of my fellow Montreal Canadiens writers and cut the BS. The Canadiens are not going to be trading the first overall pick, and they are not going to be picking anyone other than Shane Wright.
It’s kind of too bad that the Canadiens got the first overall pick from the point of view of making conversation. It is much more interesting to speculate who is going 2nd or 3rd.
That’s because Shane Wright is obviously the safest pick for 1st overall. He has the lowest floor and will be at least a good NHL player unless something goes really wrong. The first overall pick isn’t the one to go off the board, because there might be better players behind him, but finding them now is impossible.
Wright Comparable
The problem is that Shane Wright isn’t the groundbreaking first overall pick. He is less Auston Matthews or Connor McDavid and more Jack Hughes, Rasmus Dahlin or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. All those are good NHL players, but there are two different levels when comparing those two groups. At least we can hope he won’t be a Nail Yakupov or Nico Hischier.
Wright isn’t going to change the game. He isn’t going to come out of the gate and score 4 goals and become a Rocket Richard hopeful every year. A comparison that has propped up a number of times is Anze Kopitar. Kopitar was taken 11th overall in 2005, but made his debut in 2006-07 and scored 20 goals.
Another comparable is Patrice Bergeron. Bergeron was taken in the 2nd round in 2003, and played an okay year in 2003-04 with 16 goals and 39 points. He then spent a whole year in the AHL before coming back to the NHL and scored 30 goals. It also took Bergeron another 8 seasons to score 30 again.
Of course, Bergeron’s biggest draw is his two-way play, excelling both the defensive and offensive end, something that Wright has been getting early praise on. The problem is that the defensive side of the game is sadly underappreciated by a lot of fans.
You need to look no further than the Calder Trophy race. The nominees are forwards Michael Bunting and Trevor Zegras, and defender Moritz Seider. If Cole Caufield played the way he played late in the season all year, then we would have a different conversation, but that was not the case.
In my opinion, Seider should be the runaway favourite. On a bad team, Seider played with a bunch of different linemates: Nick Leddy, Danny DeKeyser, Marc Staal and Jordan Oesterle. And none of those guys are up for the Hart Trophy, just saying. And despite playing with a revolving door of defensive partners, Seider played over 23 minutes a game on average and at a high level of skill.
It would be as if Michael Bunting carried the Toronto Maple Leafs offensively while also playing with a bunch of lesser quality players than Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. To me, comparing the two is a little ridiculous, but offense sells so it’s a tight race.
If Shane Wright’s defensive game develops before his offensive game, or he doesn’t produce goals and points, Wright will already be behind the 8-ball. His confidence would be shot because of poor play, and because the hate from the fanbase would be immense.
To go out on a limb, if Shane Wright plays a whole year in the NHL, I don’t think he will put up stellar offensive numbers. There is a genuine question on whether Wright should or should not play a whole season in the NHL next year.
On the latest episode of a podcast I am a part of, Puck And Roll, I got to talk with fellow writer here on A Winning Habit and resident prospect expert Sebastian, who has seen I don’t know how many games of Shane Wright, and he suggested that Wright should probably be held back another year.
To him, it’s a question of domination. You want a first overall pick to dominate the NHL, but it is hard to dominate the best league in the world, especially when you haven’t dominated a lower league before. If Wright has a fantastic year in the AHL or OHL, he will enter the Montreal Canadiens and the NHL as confident as possible.
But if a 1st overall pick is not in the NHL right away, he will be seen as a bust in the eyes of many. It doesn’t matter if it is the best course for Wright. Especially when you look at the team that is going to draft him.
The Montreal Canadiens Fanbase
I am a Montreal Canadiens fan. Odds are that whoever is reading this is a Habs fan too. And for the most part, the fans are okay. Generally, with any fanbase, the majority of the fans are normal, healthy fans, but then there are the ones that are not.
The fans that got angry at Jonathan Drouin for taking a break for his mental health and demanding answers and transparency when what he needed was time away from all of this. He needed time away because the pressure from the fans for being a forward and a Quebecois player was immense.
The Canadiens have one of, if not the, biggest fanbase in the NHL. They also have one of the most grueling media gauntlets in sports. And the Montreal Canadiens have the most storied history in hockey. The pressure is immense for just a 4th line player. It is almost unfathomable for a 1st overall pick.
It depends on the temperament of the player, maturity and such to determine whether he will succeed and fail. But no question it will be tough on an 18 year old.
Shane Wright will be a good NHL player, if we all just leave him alone and develop on his own time. There will be growing pains. There will be times where he will not play great, but those times will start to be fewer and farther between.
I just thank God that Wright wasn’t born in Quebec, or the pressure might physically crush him flat. Please, just go easy on him. It will be better for everyone.
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