Montreal Canadiens Five Worst NHL Draft Classes: #2

The Montreal Canadiens hold on to the fifth overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft which will begin tomorrow night. They are looking to hit a few home runs with their selections and are hoping to add some future cornerstone pieces for the franchise.

While we wait to find out who will become the Canadiens 2023 NHL Draft class, we are counting down their hits and misses from previous years. Today, we look at their second worst draft class in franchise history.

The Montreal Canadiens were known for finding some talent in the late rounds while Trevor Timmins was in charge of the team’s drafting. Their major faults during that time was trying to find impact players in the first round when they should be available.

The 2015 NHL Draft was not an exception to the “first round rule” for Timmins, although injuries certainly played a part. Noah Juulsen was drafted 26th overall by the Canadiens and appeared to be turning into an everyday NHL player before he was hit in the face by two pucks in the same game and he just didn’t get his timing back after missing significant action.

The 2015 NHL Draft as a whole is a little too recent to make final determinations, but the writing is on the wall for the Habs class. It is possible that Juulsen pulls it together and becomes a top four defender, but it doesn’t look promising for anyone that the Habs took that year.

The Canadiens did only have five picks in 2015. They were a contender in the 2014-15 season, having made a run to the Eastern Conference Final the year before and having Carey Price playing out of his mind en route to a Hart, Vezina, Jennings, and Lindsay Award season.

At the trade deadline in 2015, the Canadiens traded their 2nd and 4th round picks for Jeff Petry. It was a great trade, and Petry re-signed and played great for the Canadiens for nearly a decade. However, it did leave the scouts with a few extra crossword puzzles to do on draft weekend as they weren’t all that busy.

Back to Juulsen, their first pick, if not for injuries he might have become a solid two-way defender for the Canadiens, but he was ultimately lost on waivers to the Florida Panthers. He has since moved on to the Vancouver Canucks organization and played 12 NHL game last season to bring his career total to 68 games at the big league level.

The rest of the Canadiens 2015 draft class includes Lukas Vejdemo who has played 13 games at the NHL level with two points. He has since returned to Sweden to play.

Matt Bradley was their 5th round pick and he only advanced as far as the AHL for six games and is now playing in Austria.

Simon Bourque was taken in the 6th round, played one season in the AHL and then was sent to the Winnipeg Jets, really as a placeholder in the Joel Armia trade in 2018. He was playing University hockey the following season and now plays in Austria.

Jeremiah Addison, a 7th round pick, played a total of ten AHL games before going back to school and playing at St. FX and Ryerson. He had one goal and one assist as a pro.

That is a draft class of five players that combined to play a total of 81 games at the NHL level and they have contributed 12 points.

Obviously, the Canadiens will be looking to do a little more damage tomorrow night when they pick 5th and 31st overall.

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