Montreal Canadiens Rumour Roundup: 2022 NHL Draft Edition

The Montreal Canadiens hold the first overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. They also have the 26th overall pick, at least for now.

With a total of 14 picks, including the most coveted, and the NHL Draft being held at the Bell Centre in Montreal, there is plenty of buzz around the team and the city today. We won’t know who they take with that first overall pick until they walk to the podium this evening, but debate has raged on for days.

Will it be Shane Wright, the exceptional OHL player who has been the favourite to go first overall since he was 15 years old? Or will big Slovakian winger Juraj Slafkovsky take the top spot away with his strong showing at the Olympics and World Championships? Maybe Logan Cooley is the player they have always had their eye on?

Who knows!? But one thing is for sure, the rumours are flying in the hockey world right now. With the Canadiens having the top pick as well as a baker’s dozen other choices, they could very well move up in the first round. They could try and land another top ten pick as has been rumoured in the past. They could also stay put at 1 and 26.

Trying to keep track of the latest word being thrown around is dizzying. So, we have put it all together right here. We will continue to update this article throughout the day with the latest insight and gossip from around the hockey world. Well, we are just going to focus on the news, rumours and gossip around the Montreal Canadiens in particular.

First of all, we had Bruce Garrioch, a reporter in Ottawa commenting that the Senators are interested in trading their 7th overall pick to try and help the team now. He mentioned the Canadiens as one of the teams interested in acquiring that pick.

Last night, Francois Gagnon of RDS said he was hearing that the Canadiens are leaning more towards selecting Slafkovsky than Shane Wright. Interesting…

This morning, Bob McKenzie, the greatest insider of all time, tweeted that he was hearing the opposite, and just an anecdotal note that he was hearing from teams that they believe Shane Wright will go first overall.

Update: 6:46 PM EST

Kent Hughes appears to be expecting some trade movement this evening. A trade could mean anything from a huge deal involving the first overall pick or maybe a little swap of picks later in the draft. Of course, every trade on night one of the NHL Draft is a pretty big one, right?

Update: 6:50 PM EST

Do betting sites know something that we don’t know yet? They have drastically shifted their odds of who goes first overall to make Juraj Slafkovsky the favourite even though Shane Wright has been the leader on the betting odds all year.

Holy Shutt!! They drafted Juraj Slafkovsky and not Shane Wright! Crazy.

From the didn’t see any of this coming department: Habs pull off two stunning trades. Alexander Romanov is out and Kirby Dach is in.

Update: 9:58 EST

Sounds like teams are calling on veteran goalie Jake Allen. Kevin Weekes has been on top of these rumours for a while now and is becoming a trusted inside source.

Check back here for updates throughout the day and night as we will keep you posted on all the latest going on around the Montreal Canadiens.

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