An early look at the Canadiens biggest needs for the 2024 NHL Draft
The Montreal Canadiens have one of the deeper prospects pools, but the 2024 NHL Draft can parlay it into something epic if Kent Hughes calls out the right names.
Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes must snag the best player on the board when his team is on the clock in late June, regardless of need in the prospects pool. But he must also, at some point in the 2024 NHL Draft, focus on the weaker areas of his organizational depth chart and turn them into strengths or at least halfway decent position groups.
While the Candiens prospects pool should rank among the top half of the league, and perhaps even close to the top 10, there are still multiple weaknesses or at least lack of depth in it. So, with a couple of months before the 2024 draft, which position groups appear to be the most pressing for Hughes and the Canadiens front office?
Finding a complete center would be ideal for Kent Hughes
Earlier in the year, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic released a list of top 15 prospects as part of an overall ranking for all 32 NHL teams, and if one position jumps out, it’s that Owen Beck is the only pure center listed, and he’s currently seventh.
Beck has been outstanding this season, with 81 points and 34 goals in 57 regular season games for the Peterborough Petes and the Saginaw Spirit. And he’s supplemented those numbers with another two goals and eight assists in 11 playoff games at the time of this writing.
Yeah, somehow getting the top overall pick for the rights to draft Boston University’s Macklin Celebrini is the preferred situation for all Habs fans and those in the front office. But even if the Canadiens stay at No. 5, there is a chance someone like Cayden Lindstrom, a versatile player with NHL size, will drop.
There is even a possibility Hughes could snag the equally versatile Ivan Demidov should he luck out and get the second or even the third overall pick. Lindstrom and Demidov can technically play center and winger, but they are also can’t-miss prospects, so taking them in favor of a pure center works here.
So if the position isn’t addressed in the first or even the second round, Hughes still has plenty of draft picks to find that high-upside pure center or two for the pipeline.
Another pure right winger (or two) is also a big need for the Habs
Scott Wheeler’s rankings revealed something else: he only had one pure right winger - Filip Mesar - in his top 15. Mesar is a great player, with the former first-round pick having improved steadily between his 2022-23 campaign with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers and this season. Overall, Mesar appeared in 55 games, scoring 68 points and 20 goals, and he will be even better in 2024-25 when he ultimately finds his place on the Laval Rocket.
But Mesar is just one player, and while there are some versatile wingers in the system, Kent Hughes must address the right side not once but probably a few times in late June. As noted in the previous slide, the first-round pick should be all about taking that top player, be it a blueliner, a center, or a left winger, but either a right winger or a center must come off the board late in the first round.
There should be talent there, like Terik Parascak, Emil Hemming, and Beckett Sennecke, to name a golden trio. Parascak could be the best of the three, putting up 105 points and 43 goals, so he would be the ideal pick here.
But Hughes doesn’t need to stop there, as if there is another right winger available with his late-second-rounder, he must take them, too - again, assuming the center isn’t addressed previously. If he can get one or two high-quality talents here, it would be a huge win for the Hughes and the Habs prospects pool.
Another goaltender would be an excellent find in the later rounds
The goaltending class isn’t that good this season, with Tankaton placing only Ryerson Leenders in its rankings at 78th overall. But with over 10 picks in the 2024 draft, Kent Hughes must seriously consider adding at least one or two in the later rounds, as only Boston College’s Jacob Fowler was good enough to hit the top 15 this season.
Not that someone like Leenders or whomever is available on the board will immediately be a top 15 prospect should Hughes select a goaltender, but it’s more than worth rolling with a high-potential player between Rounds 4 through 7. Unless he’s interested in Leenders, whom he will likely need to use one of his two third-round picks on.
As with the other two positions listed, the object is to just get names into the organizational depth chart. Fowler is great, and if his performance at Boston College gives us any indication of his true potential, there is a good chance he ends up in Quebec a few years from now, perhaps creating a tandem with Cayden Primeau.
But it’s always wise to add some much-needed insurance that can develop into at least a high-end organizational depth piece. The 2024 class may only have one (or a few) goaltenders worth taking in the mid-rounds, depending on whose rankings you look at, but each netminder taken could become that next unprecedented asset for your franchise.
(Statistics provided by Elite Prospects)
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