While the second-round series featuring the Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks kept Canadians on the edge of their seats right up to the end of Game 7, Montreal Canadiens fans had another reason to keep close tabs on the matchup. The winner’s identity would determine when the Canadiens would take to the podium for the second time in the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft.
How Montreal Acquired Another First-Round Pick
While general manager (GM) Kent Hughes is always amenable to trading, you won’t get him to accept a deal for anything less than he believes his asset is worth. He showed it right away when he arrived in town, he traded Tyler Toffoli to the Calgary Flames. In return, Montreal obtained Tyler Pitlick, the signing rights to Emil Heineman, Calgary’s first-round pick at the 2022 Draft and Calgary’s fifth-round pick in 2023.
There’s one particular asset the Canadiens’ GM is particularly fond of… first-round picks. He got another one by sending Ben Chariot to the Florida Panthers, but he passed it on to the Colorado Avalanche to acquire Alex Newhook.
Hughes would obtain another first-round pick when the Habs’ GM agreed to relieve Brad Treliving of Sean Monahan’s contract, receiving a first-round pick for his trouble. Initially, he had hoped to trade Monahan at the deadline for another asset, but it was impossible as Monahan missed significant time because of injuries. Never one to give up easily, he signed the veteran centreman for another year, and this time, the odds were in his favour. Monahan stayed healthy and was traded to the Winnipeg Jets who hoped to make a run at the Stanley Cup. To do so, they were willing to give Hughes their 2024 first-round pick.
Which Picks Will Be Montreal’s Then?
After the Draft Lottery, we knew Montreal would pick fifth overall. However, since the second-round series between Edmonton and Vancouver is over, we know the Jets’ pick would have been the 26th overall pick and it’s that very pick that will now be Montreal’s second first-round pick.
There is, of course, a distinct possibility that Hughes moves that pick for other assets, after all, he traded a first-round pick in 2022 to obtain Kirby Dach and another one to get Newhook in 2023. They say things come in threes… It makes you wonder who could be on Hughes’ wish list this year.
What Kind of Players Have the Canadiens Gotten With the 26th Overall Pick in the Past?
You don’t need to go back very far to find the last time the Canadiens had the 26th overall pick, it was the first-round pick obtained from the Flames in the Toffoli trade in the 2022 Draft. That night, Montreal made Juraj Slafkovsky the first overall pick, and 24 picks later, they made the big Slovak even happier by selecting his fellow countryman and friend Filip Mesar with the 26th overall pick. It’s still too early to say if Mesar will pan out, but he’s at least still in the Canadiens’ organization and has an entry-level contract in his pocket.
Then in 2015, the Canadiens selected Noah Juulsen with the 26th overall pick. The defenceman showed promise but was unlucky as can be when he was struck in the face twice during the overtime period of a 5-4 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals on Nov. 19, 2018. The next day, it was announced he had a fractured jaw, and then, a couple of months later, after a brief return to the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Laval Rocket, it was announced that he was out indefinitely with vision-related issues. He only suited with the Rocket 13 times in the following season, and, in the 2020-21 season, he was claimed off waivers by the Florida Panthers. He then signed with the Canucks as a free agent in July 2022. So far, he has played 122 games and it’s hard to see him finding his way to a big role in the NHL.
The year before, in 2014, Montreal also selected late in the first round, and with the 26th overall pick, they selected Nikita Scherbak. He couldn’t manage to establish himself in the NHL with the Canadiens even though he was initially looked at as a speedy forward with plenty of skills. Montreal lost him to the Los Angeles Kings on waivers in 2018. The Kings didn’t offer him a qualifying offer at the end of the season and he returned to Russia to continue his career. In the last few years, he has played in the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia, then with the Dallas Stars’ affiliates in the AHL, in Slovakia, Czechia, and then Slovakia for a second time, before making stops in France and most recently in Austria. Needless to say, Scherbak has more air miles than NHL points to his name.
Finally, 31 years before selecting Scherbak, in 1983 and with a second-round pick that was still the 26th overall pick (ah the days when there weren’t more hockey teams than beers in a two-dozen pack…) the Canadiens selected Claude “Pepe” Lemieux. What a pick that was, Lemieux took a few years to establish himself in the NHL, but once he did, he never looked back. His career lasted 21 seasons in which he played 1,215 games putting up 786 points and 1,777 penalty minutes. On top of the Canadiens, he also played for the New Jersey Devils, Colorado Avalanche, Phoenix Coyotes, Dallas Stars, and San Jose Sharks. He won four Stanley Cups, one with Montreal, two with the New Jersey Devils (he was also awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1995) and one in Colorado. Those old enough will remember him as the timebomb that made the Colorado-Detroit rivalry explode.
If the Canadiens do take the pick, they’ll be hoping to strike gold like they did all the way back in 1983 when they paved the way to the NHL to one of the biggest pests the league has ever known. Just over a month to wait to find out if Montreal will be making the pick and if they don’t, who knows what trick Hughes will have up his sleeve to razzle and dazzle at this year’s draft.
