Five Best Late Draft Picks By Canadiens Since 2000
Any sports team heading into their draft know what they’re doing for the most part in the first two rounds. Round three becomes a little more of a roll of the dice and then rounds four and on, it’s practically playing darts in the dark. It’s no different for the Montreal Canadiens, nor is it for the New York Yankees.
The Canadiens however have gotten their fair share of chance in the last two decades starting in round 3. At the time, the player chosen were mostly unknown by fans but then grew into NHL players. Andrei Markov as pictured above, was a 6th round pick in the 1998 draft.
Some on this list will be listed in the honorable mentions that haven’t yet reached their peak, but that’s because they have been drafted recently, but are still worth the mention due to their stature with the team.
I found 17 players worthy of mention that were drafted as of the third round of the draft since 2000. Here are the top 5.
5- Jake Evans (7th Round – 207th Overall – 2014)
Jake Evans has captured the respect of fans and the heart of one of our contributors in Joshua Rosa. The scrappy centerman is slowly establishing himself as a bonafide fourth line centerman, capable of taking over third line duties in a pinch.
Evans has always been a responsible player on the ice. He is capable of playing a fluid two-way game and can give you a dozen goals at every level he’s been through. Don’t get fooled by the lineup card, because Evans can still dangle you out of your laces.
786 NHL games, 96 goals, 338 assists, 434 points in 13 NHL season. Represented his country a total of of 6 times at the international level both in Juniors and professional. Captain of the New York Islanders. Stanley Cup Champion.
Not bad for a 9th round pick out of Bern, Switzerland.
The journey of Mark Streit to the NHL is quite remarkable. At the time, the Swiss-A League wasn’t what it was today and the fact that he even got noticed by someone is borderline a miracle of it’s own. The thing is, the 2004 draftee did play a season of North-American hockey during the 1999-2000 season. He played 1 game for the Utah Grizzlies of the International Hockey League, played 14 games for the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks and 43 games for the Springfield Falcons.
Still, he returned to Switzerland and it took all this time, including 9 rounds, for him to get a chance.
Streit definitely seized that chance as he made the team out of training camp and remained in the NHL for his entire career. While not the most defensive savvy player, he would quarterback a rush like no other and had smooth passing skills that would help pad his statistics.
A little known fact that was only discovered after his retirement following his 2 game stint with the Canadiens in 2017-18 was that he adored the game so much he would rarely tell team doctors when he was injured. Only the final three seasons of his career forced him to sit out more games but during his prime, he was the suck it up type and would hit the ice no matter how much it hurt.
Today we have the pleasure of watching Alexander Romanov fly across the ice and pulverizing the opponent with vicious bodychecks.
A decade ago, our version of Romanov was called Alexei Emelin.
The Tolyatti, Russia native was drafted out of the KHL in the 3rd round of the 2004 draft to the surprise of many. There were no doubts that Emelin could have an impact at the NHL level, drawing many comparisons to another hard hitting former defenceman in Darius Kasparaitis, it was a matter of if Emelin would come to North America at all. A narrative we hear often when teams draft Russians.
Turns out it was all hearsay and Emelin joined the Canadiens without much fuss despite what was rumored.
Emelin gave us six seasons of hard hitting hockey. In the 2017 offseason he was claimed via the expansion draft by the Vegas Golden Knights who then flipped him to the Nashville Predators in return for a 3rd round pick in the 2019 draft.
After one season in Nashville, Emelin returned to the KHL where he signed with Omsk Avangard where he just completed his 4th season with the team.
Emelin was injured during Game 1 last year’s Gagarin Cup in the KHL but returned to the game. A day later he would pass out and was rushed to the hospital. Russian media speculated that Emelin suffered from acute liver failure and would require a transplant. The team vehemently denied such reports although Emelin was in critical condition.
Emelin would then return for the 2021-22 season in full health.
Brendan Gallagher is one of the poster childs of undersized players that was passed over but through hard work and determination, became a legitimate and successful player in the NHL.
What is interesting about Gallagher’s pick was that the year he was drafted, he had just finished a campaign where he scored 41 goals, tallied 40 assists for 81 points tagging along 111 penalty minutes. On top of that, he had notched 21 points in 16 playoff games.
As usual, scouts looked at his height and saw he was under 6 feet and went elsewhere. It didn’t matter that he was as strong as an ox and could plant a player twice his size flat on his back, he was another undersized winger who wouldn’t make it.
The Canadiens used their 5th round pick on him. Probably after one of their western scouts telling them that he’s a relentless player who can score in a league that is notoriously known for its tight defensive systems.
Regrets were few.
Gallagher amped it up with another 44 goal campaign and ended his WHL career with another 41 goal season. A 36 game stint in the AHL is all it took for Gally and off to the races he went.
Two 30 goal seasons, two 20 goal seasons, the adoration of fans young and old and a leader on and off the ice. Teams hate playing against him but would take him on their side any day of the week. He made a career of playing with reckless abandon and crashing the net just for the sake of representing the logo on his chest rather than the name on his back.
An extremely generous human being and despite never winning any individual awards, fans will always respect and remember him.
There must have been something in the water at the 2010 draft because the 5th round also featured Zach Hyman being drafted by the Florida Panthers and John Klingberg by the Dallas Stars. Round 6 would then see the Rangers draft Jesper Fast and all the way near the end of the round the Ottawa Senators grabbed a winger named Mark Stone.
Everyone’s favorite turtleneck wearing hockey player.
Tomas Plekanec was one of five players of the 2001 draft to have played at least 1000 NHL games. The others are Jason Spezza, Mikko Koivu, Dan Hamhuis and Jason Pominville. Spezza, Koivu and Hamhuis were first round picks while Pominville was drafted in the second round.
Outside the first round, there were a few highlights but it wasn’t a particularly deep draft. I’m sure more than one team would want a mulligan and draft Plekanec much higher as he quickly became one of the most respected two-way players in the game.
15 seasons in the NHL which included that awkward 17 game trip to the Toronto Maple Leafs to give Plekanec a chance to win the Stanley Cup, only of course, to see his dream slip away after 7 games in the first round.
Plekanec love Montreal through and through. Normally shy and reserved with the media, he would always take the time to chat with fans outside of the arena. He loved playing for the city and tried to represent his team in the best way possible. Never did he request a trade, never did he even consider a free agency offer. He was deeply rooted with the Canadiens and didn’t want to go anywhere else.
Plekanec gave the Canadiens 7 20 goal seasons and was a model of consistency. Effective at the faceoff dot, capable of killing penalties, could be used on the powerplay, he was able to do it all.
One of the greatest traits of Plekanec was that he knew that at times he was playing above his pay grade. He was an excellent second line center but because of the team’s ever lack of depth down the middle, was pitted on the first line and just over-used by his coaches. Still, he never complained and made the best of it.
Armchair GM’s and rumor sites have traded Plekanec out of Montreal at least 4,000 times during his career. Yet he remained and although Nick Suzuki now wears #14, many fans will still remember the turtleneck taking that faceoff.
Honorable Mentions:
- Ryan O’Byrne (3rd Round – 79th Overall – 2003)
- Mikhail Grabovski (5th Round – 150th Overall – 2004)
- Sergei Kostitsyn (7th Round – 200th Overall – 2005)
- Ryan White (3rd Round – 66th Overall – 2006)
- Yannick Weber (3rd Round – 73rd Overall – 2007)
- Charles Hudon (5th Round – 122nd Overall – 2012)
- Victor Mete (4th Round – 100th Overall – 2016)
- Michael Pezzetta (6th Round – 160th Overall – 2016)
- Cayden Primeau (7th Round – 199th Overall – 2017)
- Jordan Harris (3rd Round – 71st Overall – 2018)
- Rafaël Harvey-Pinard (7th Round – 201st Overall – 2019)
- Joshua Roy (5th Round – 150th Overall – 2021)
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