Montreal Canadiens Rumour: Habs Weighing Five Offers For 5th Overall Pick

The Montreal Canadiens enter tonight’s first round of the NHL Draft with the 5th overall pick. It is a fairly enviable position as there are plenty of teams that missed out on the playoffs, but have to wait much longer to add a young talent to their organization.

The Canadiens will be looking to add yet another exciting young player after taking Juraj Slafkovksy with the first overall pick at last year’s NHL Draft. Who could it be this year? There are four centers at the top of the draft that would be excellent fits. Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Leo Carlsson and Will Smith all project to be impact first line centers.

Then there is Matvei Michkov whose talent level puts him right in the same stratosphere as those four centers. That is an impressive top five and the easy thing for the Canadiens to do is just wait and select whichever one is available.

However, other teams are going to want to jump into the top five and get their hands on one of these prospects. They might even be quite desperate to jump up and take someone with the 5th overall pick.

According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the Canadiens have been getting plenty of offers from other teams interested in jumping into the top five of tonight’s NHL Draft. He says the Canadiens are currently weighing five different potential offers for their coveted pick.

The Canadiens are unlikely to pull the trigger on a deal until the last minute. That way they can wait and see which players are available to them with their pick. If someone they have ranked second or third drops to fifth somehow, it makes the pick more valuable for them and therefore less likely to be dealt.

If the four centers are gone and they aren’t that interested in taking Matvei Michkov, then they are in a position where they should probably make the trade.

With Alex Newhook being acquired for the 31st and 37th overall picks, it would make sense for the Canadiens to slide down a few spots and add another late first or an early second in the process. Right now, the Habs pick 5th and then aren’t scheduled to pick again until the third round.

It will be interesting to see what the Canadiens end up doing. There is no question they have solid offers on the table for their 5th overall pick, but will they trade it or make the pick? We will find out tonight during the first round of the NHL Draft.

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