Canadiens: 2022 Draft Has Chance To Turn Page On History Of Mistakes

Then, the 1988 Draft happened, and everything since then has been everything most current Canadiens fans are accustomed to and familiar with. Between 1988 and 2001, Montreal selected just one player in the first round who would play a key and consistent role for the team, with 21st pick in 1993 Saku Koivu becoming the face of the Canadiens franchise during one of the team’s most dismal eras, much of which was compounded by well, the draft.

Eric Charron, Lindsay Vallis, Turner Stevenson, Brent Bilodeau, David Wilkie, Brad Brown, Terry Ryan, Matt Higgins, Jason Ward, and Eric Chouinard. All of these players were taken in the first round by the Canadiens during this period, and excluding Stevenson, Brown, and Ward (who found occasional bottom six and depth roles) the most NHL games any of these guys played was Wilkie with 167, with none serving anything beyond a bottom six role.

While things did pick up in bits and pieces over the following years, with guys like Chris Higgins, Andrei Kostitsyn, and Mike Komisarek, Carey Price, P.K Subban, and Max Pacioretty were in many ways Montreal’s definitive picks, being taken fifth, 43rd, and 22nd overall by the team in 2005 and 2007 respectively. Whilst Price went on to be one of the more decorated and beloved tenders in Canadiens history, it wasn’t without some asterisks, and the same unfortunately, can be said for the rest of Montreal’s drafting from this time.