The Montreal Canadiens host the 2022 NHL Draft and hope it will go down as one of their best ever. They have a chance to make it a great one with all of the picks they own.
The Habs do have the first overall pick, and in total they hold 14 picks in the upcoming draft. That gives them plenty of chances to find great picks later on in the proceedings. The fact it is being held inside the Bell Centre in Montreal just makes the possibility of a special few days even greater.
But, the best laid plans don’t always work out. Trying to predict how a bunch of teenagers are going to develop in the coming years is nearly impossible. No matter who the Canadiens select in the coming days, we really won’t know how they did until about a decade down the road.
Then, we will be able to look back and really grade how general manager Kent Hughes and the rest of the Habs scouting and management staff performed at this draft. With 14 picks at their disposal, there is some room for error, as a really great draft can be had with the right combination of two or three picks.
We have seen the Habs have great drafts, like in 1971 when they selected Guy Lafleur and Larry Robinson in the same year. The foundation for a dynasty at the tail end of that decade was in place, but again, no one really knew that at the time.
It took a few years to really see what they had, and if the Habs really knew what Robinson was going to turn into, they wouldn’t have waited until their fourth pick of the draft to take him.
We have also seen some drafts go by with the Habs getting next to nothing out of it. Let’s take a look back at some of the worst performances the Canadiens have had at the NHL Draft and hope that the 2022 iteration doesn’t end up on this list down the road.