There is a reason draft picks are referred to as magic beans. No pick is ever 100% guaranteed to pan out, and the Montreal Canadiens have figured that out the hard way over the years. Recently, the Canadiens have done quite well with their first-round picks, selecting players like Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Cole Caufield. However, with every star or good NHL player the Canadiens draft, there are three to four picks that leave you scratching your head. Hindsight is always 20/20, and looking back at those drafts now, you start to wonder how not only Montreal but the rest of the league missed out on certain players. While the Canadiens have many bad first-round selections, there are five that stand out as the worst.
5. Nikita Scherbak
The Canadiens 2014 first-round pick, Nikita Scherbak, was thought to be the next Russian superstar to play in Montreal. The 26th overall pick put up impressive numbers in his two seasons in the WHL, playing for the Saskatoon Blades and Everett Silvertips. In 130 games across two seasons, Scherbak had 55 goals and 105 assists. The 2015-16 season is when Scherbak made the jump to the AHL, and in his first year, he had seven goals and 16 assists in 48 games. Scherbak began the next season once again in the AHL, but after an impressive season, 13 goals and 28 assists in 66 games, he finally got his chance to make his NHL debut.
Scherbak played three games for the Canadiens in the 2016-17 season, finishing with a single goal. The next season, Scherbak split the season between the AHL and NHL. After producing just six points in 26 games for the Canadiens that season, it was looking like he was coming to the end of his tenure with the franchise. Scherbak was waived the following season, getting claimed by the Los Angeles Kings. However, after playing just eight games, he was sent back down to the AHL and would never see NHL action again. In total, his NHL career spanned 37 games, totalling six goals and two assists.
4. Louis Leblanc
“The next homegrown star,” that was what centre Louis Leblanc was being labelled when the Canadiens selected him with the 18th overall pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. After an impressive season with the Omaha Lancers in the USHL, putting up 59 points in 60 games, taking home the Rookie of the Year trophy, he decided to go the collegiate route, enrolling at Harvard University. After recording 11 goals and 12 assists in 31 games, taking home the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Leblanc chose to return home to play for the Montreal Juniors in the QMJHL. In 51 games with the Juniors, Leblanc had 26 goals and 32 assists, looking like he was ready to make the jump to the NHL.
The next season, Leblanc got his wish. After starting the year with the Canadiens' AHL affiliate at the time, the Hamilton Bulldogs, Leblanc made his NHL debut in November of 2011 against the Anaheim Ducks. He would go on to split that season between the Canadiens and the Bulldogs, finishing the year playing 42 games for Montreal, recording five goals and adding five assists. Leblanc played the entirety of the next season with the Bulldogs, producing just 18 points in 62 games. He would get called up by the Canadiens once again in the 2013-14 season, but after going pointless in eight games, he was sent back down to the AHL. On June 14th 2014, Leblanc was traded to the Ducks for future considerations, and would never play in the NHL again.
3. Terry Ryan
The Canadiens thought they were getting their next superstar when they selected left-winger Terry Ryan with the 8th overall pick in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft. Ryan was coming off a season where he recorded 50 goals and 60 assists in 70 games for the Tri-City Americans in the WHL. Following the draft, Ryan returned to the Americans, having yet another productive season, scoring 32 goals and adding 37 assists in 59 games. Ryan made his NHL debut during the 1996-97 season, playing in three games, finishing with 0 points. Ryan would only appear in five more games with the Canadiens over the next two seasons. In 2001, he would suffer a career-ending ankle injury, putting an end to his NHL dreams.
Despite not fulfilling his dreams and draft slot expectations, Ryan still managed to find success. He became a professional ball hockey player, representing Canada at multiple tournaments, helping them win two gold medals, a silver, and a bronze. Ryan also found success as an actor, appearing in the Crave show Letterkenny before becoming a regular on the hit hockey sitcom Shoresy. While he never lived up to being the Canadiens 8th overall selection, he did manage to find success elsewhere. However, that does not take the sting out for Canadiens fans who missed out on players like Jarome Iginla, Radek Dvorak, and Petr Sykora.
2. Brent Bilodeau
If the name does not ring any bells, that is because defenceman Brent Bilodeau never actually played an NHL game. Bilodeau, the Canadiens 17th overall pick in the 1991 draft, spent the two years before his draft playing for the Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL. Bilodeau never put up any crazy offensive numbers, but was viewed as a shutdown defenceman. Following his draft year, the Thunderbirds traded Bilodeau to the Swift Current Broncos, where his offensive numbers skyrocketed. After recording 71 points in 130 games with the Thunderbirds, Bilodeau had 105 points in 115 games with the Broncos.
Following the end of his junior career, Bilodeau made the jump to the AHL, playing for the Fredericton Canadiens. Bilodeau struggled with the AHL Canadiens, only recording 19 points in 122 games over two seasons. Bilodeau spent the next couple of seasons bouncing from the IHL, which merged with the AHL in 2001, the WCHL, which later folded and merged with the ECHL. Bilodeau retired in 2005, after playing 767 games between the AHL, IHL, and ECHL. He was the only player selected in the first round of the 1991 NHL Entry Draft that failed to appear in at least one NHL game.
1. David Fischer
Another Canadiens first-round draft pick who never played in an NHL game, defenceman David Fischer, likely goes down as the worst pick in the franchise’s history. While Bilodeau also did not play in an NHL game, at least he made it to the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate; Fischer did not. The Canadiens drafted Fischer 20th overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, directly out of high school, where he won the Minnesota Mr. Hockey award as the best player in the state. Following his draft, Fischer went the collegiate route, committing to the University of Minnesota to play for the Golden Gophers. He spent four years in the program, but after managing just 38 points in 157 games, he never signed an entry-level contract with the Canadiens.
After being released from his training camp invite from the Vancouver Canucks, Fischer spent the next two years playing in the AHL and ECHL. After the 2011-12 season, Fischer took his talents to Europe, playing in Germany and Austria. He played eight seasons in Europe before retiring in 2020. What makes the selection worse for the Canadiens is that just two picks later, the Philadelphia Flyers selected Claude Giroux. Montreal missed out on an elite centre for a defenceman who never even signed his entry-level deal with the franchise. Going down as one of the worst first-round picks in Canadiens history.
Add us as a preferred source on Google