The Montreal Canadiens hold the first overall pick in Thursday night’s NHL Draft, but we are going to have to wait until the management team steps up to the podium before we find out who will be selected.
Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes met with the media yesterday to discuss the NHL Draft, but he wasn’t going to tell anyone who has ranked first overall. Instead, he gave some of the standard answers like we could trade the pick if the right offer comes along, we haven’t made our final decision, blah blah blah.
He did however, narrow the potential list to a field of just three players. To no one’s surprise, the Canadiens are going to pick one of Shane Wright, Juraj Slafkovsky or Logan Cooley. Even that amount of information is far more than we usually get from NHL general managers who are among the most tightlipped professions in the world.
Kent Hughes says decision is between Wright, Slafkovsky and Cooley.
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) July 4, 2022
It wouldn’t make sense for the general manager to give up too much information. There is still a possibility they get a ridiculous trade offer from a team close to the top that wants to move up to first overall.
Let’s just say the New Jersey Devils, who pick second, really want Slafkovsky to play with one of their first overall pick centres Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier. If they think the Habs are going to take Slafkovsky, maybe they will offer a good prospect, plus the second overall pick to move up to first overall and get the player they really want.
It is really a large game of poker here where Hughes doesn’t want to reveal too much. The fact he mentioned they have narrowed it down to those three players is kind of surprising, although it is quite obvious that one of those three will go first overall.
We here at FanSided are just huge fans like you, and not insiders, but we can imagine behind the scenes that Hughes is taking calls about the first overall pick with other teams kicking tires and asking around to see what it would take to move up. If he really wants Shane Wright and gets the sense he can move down a spot and still get him, why not make the deal and add another asset, while still getting the player you want?
We see this game of chicken, or poker, play out every year at the NHL Draft. It is just way more fun and exciting because it is the Montreal Canadiens with the first pick. The overwhelming likelihood is that they pick first overall, and we know it will be one of the three forwards that Hughes mentioned in his press conference yesterday.
Just two more days until draft day and we can finally welcome the Habs first number one pick since 1980.
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