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Shane Wright May Not Be The Best Player, But The Canadiens Will Pick Him

By Joshua Rosa

PETERBOROUGH, ON - MARCH 29: Shane Wright #51 of the Kingston Frontenacs skates against the Peterborough Petes in an OHL game at the Peterborough Memorial Centre on March 29, 2022 in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Ken Andersen/Getty Images)
PETERBOROUGH, ON - MARCH 29: Shane Wright #51 of the Kingston Frontenacs skates against the Peterborough Petes in an OHL game at the Peterborough Memorial Centre on March 29, 2022 in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Ken Andersen/Getty Images) /
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Shane Wright may not be the best player in this draft class in 5 years, but the Montreal Canadiens will still pick him, and that is okay.

The NHL draft is weird. There are literally infinite options for a team to make, and there are always surprises. The Ottawa Senators drafted Tyler Boucher in an incredibly off the board pick 10th overall last year. He left college hockey after half a season because it wasn’t working out.

You can draft for need, or draft the best player available no matter what position they play. The Canadiens made that mistake a few years ago in drafting center Jesperi Kotkaniemi, instead of taking the best player available. Had they taken best player available they may have ended up with Brady Tkachuk instead.

You can always trade up, trade down or simply just trade away any pick. It depends on the year too. Some years have multiple prospects practically guaranteed to become superstars, and some where the first overall pick seems to be more of a solid middle six contributor than an All-Star.

Shane Wright projects to be right about in the middle. His ceiling is superstar level, but his floor seems to be a top 6 forward, unless something goes really wrong. Worst case scenario seems to be a very dependable defensive centre who doesn’t score all that much. He’s not Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews or Sidney Crosby.

And it is years like this when you eventually look back and get to see that the number 1 overall pick is not the best player in the draft class. That is just the nature of predicting what will happen when drafting teenagers.

Predicting teenaged behaviour while doing the most mundane of tasks is nearly impossible. Trying to decipher how much better they will eventually become at hockey is impossible.

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