2021 NHL Draft

[electron58]

4 hours ago, H_T_L said:

Full out damage control by Molson. Just about every fan out there knew this was a problem choice, but for whatever reason, it just went over the heads of Hab management. Mind boggling how they could have so badly misread the situation. Who's running this show??

Good question.  I was wondering when Molson would get involved.  Like him or hate him,  I think he does have integrity.  Maybe he didn't know?  He really does take a hands off approach to the Habs.  Otherwise,  bergebin would have been fired a long time ago.

[electron58]

4 hours ago, H_T_L said:

Full out damage control by Molson. Just about every fan out there knew this was a problem choice, but for whatever reason, it just went over the heads of Hab management. Mind boggling how they could have so badly misread the situation. Who's running this show??

I gotta believe,  that Molson wasn't involved with the choice. It was odd,  that bergebin was at the podium,  all alone, looking like he just finished running the Boston Marathon. Plus rumours, that TT did not approve. 

[jennifer_rocket]

8 minutes ago, electron58 said:

I gotta believe,  that Molson wasn't involved with the choice. It was odd,  that bergebin was at the podium,  all alone, looking like he just finished running the Boston Marathon. Plus rumours, that TT did not approve. 

I believe it has been reported (from a Timmins interview) that Molson had full knowledge of the pick before it happened.

[CaptWelly]

11 minutes ago, jennifer_rocket said:

I believe it has been reported (from a Timmins interview) that Molson had full knowledge of the pick before it happened.

I hope the kid gets a shot and turns out to be great.........then of course everyone would forget.

 

[electron58]

24 minutes ago, jennifer_rocket said:

I believe it has been reported (from a Timmins interview) that Molson had full knowledge of the pick before it happened.

Interesting. 

[Regis22]

So Bettman was on a podcast (?) and he said he was stunned thst the Habs drafted LM . With 2 daughters stunnned doesn’t even describe how he felt .,

[ramcharger440]

26 minutes ago, Regis22 said:

So Bettman was on a podcast (?) and he said he was stunned thst the Habs drafted LM . With 2 daughters stunnned doesn’t even describe how he felt .,

Really don't care what that little troll has to say.

[electron58]

2 hours ago, Regis22 said:

So Bettman was on a podcast (?) and he said he was stunned thst the Habs drafted LM . With 2 daughters stunnned doesn’t even describe how he felt .,

Trust him about as much as I trust bergebin. Maybe bergebin got tired of waiting for the "reward" when he acquired John Scott. Never really got an explanation.

[Larry-Launstein-Jr]

The whole thing could have been avoided if MB had followed the kid's request and not drafted him. But the biggest concern I have is why did they waste a first-round pick on him? There's a good chance he never gets to play for the Habs (buried in the minors, or continues his actions). It would have been a wasted opportunity for the Habs.

While we are on the subject of the draft, the positioning of the Canadiens as the second-to-last pick makes me wonder if we should actually traded the pick and go down to the second round where we could acquire more depth. We were not going to get a superstar player anyway, even though there was not any major potential stars in this draft anyway. And there was no way we would move up unless we traded a bunch of players or picks.

But then again, MB should have stayed away from this one.

[electron58]

14 minutes ago, Larry-Launstein-Jr said:

The whole thing could have been avoided if MB had followed the kid's request and not drafted him. But the biggest concern I have is why did they waste a first-round pick on him? There's a good chance he never gets to play for the Habs (buried in the minors, or continues his actions). It would have been a wasted opportunity for the Habs.

While we are on the subject of the draft, the positioning of the Canadiens as the second-to-last pick makes me wonder if we should actually traded the pick and go down to the second round where we could acquire more depth. We were not going to get a superstar player anyway, even though there was not any major potential stars in this draft anyway. And there was no way we would move up unless we traded a bunch of players or picks.

But then again, MB should have stayed away from this one.

Yes. It could have, and, probably should have.  Unfortunately,  I think bergebin was more interested in the scouting reports. This kid,  will either be a home run,  or, a washout. Ofcourse,  he's hoping for the latter.

[BigTed3]

Always interesting to look back at past drafts and see what kind of "success" various picks yield. The 2017 draft is becoming mature, as most of these kids are now 22 and we're starting to see where the hits and misses are. So here's a summary by round of how many NHLers were produced to date. I'll define a regular NHLer as someone who already has more than 100 games played in the league and a guy with a chance who has 10 games or more already:

- Picks 1-10: 7 regular NHLers,  all 10 with 10+ games

- Picks 11-20: 3 NHLers, all 10 with 10+ games

- Picks 21-31: 4 NHLers, 9 of 11 with 10+ games

- Round 2: 1 NHLer, 14 of 31 with 10+ games

- Round 3: 0 NHLers, 2 of 31 with 10+ games (Cale Fleury leads with 41)

- Round 4: 0 NHLers, 5 of 31 with 10+ games

- Rounds 5-7: 0 NHLers, 2 of 93 with 10+ games

Obviously this will still evolve, but you can see how thus far there are only 15 guys who have played 100 games and that 14 of those came from Round 1. Of the 52 players with at least 10 games, 29 came from Round 1 and 14 from Round 2, with only 9 from the rest of the draft. Montreal, for what it's worth, drafted two of the 52 players with at least 10 games (Poehling and Fleury) and traded for another (Suzuki).

Now let's move back a draft to 2016:

- Picks 1-10: 8 NHL regulars, all 10 with 10+

- Picks 11-20: 5 NHL regulars, all 10 with 10+

- Picks 21-30: 4 NHL regulars, 7 of 10 with 10+

- Round 2: 7 NHL regulars, 17 of 30 with 10+

- Round 3: 1 NHL regular, 5 with 10+

- Round 4: 1 NHL regular (Victor Mete with 199 games), 10 with 10+

- Round 5: 0 regulars, 2 with 10+

- Round 6: 1 regular, 3 with 10+

- Round 7: 0 regulars, 1 with 10+

Again, we see that of guys who have played 100+ games, 17 of 27 came from Round 1 and another 7 from Round 2. Of the 65 players with 10+ games, 27 came from round 1 and 17 more from round 2. The Habs had two (Sergachev and Mete) of the 27 guys who have played 100 games.

All that to say what I've emphasized before: picks past the 2nd round don't matter that much. Yes, there are diamonds in the rough that you can find and having a lot of picks increases your chance of hitting one, but for the most part, the majority of NHL regulars come from Round 1 and to a lesser degree Round 2. An average NHL finds one, maybe two NHLers per draft, no more. So if you want to stock your cupboards, you need to find ways of drafting guys in the first two rounds and trading away lower round picks for established NHLers is likely valuable (ie if you can deal a 3rd rounder to get a 2nd pairing D man or a 3rd line winger, chances are that you wouldn't have drafted a guy to fill that role anyways). You can fill out your team via trades like this and via free agency but what is hard to find are the top-of-the-lineup elite players.

This is why MB should have pushed harder to trade players like Price and Weber and Tatar and Danault and Gallagher before they hit free agency or fell off a cliff. If he could have recouped some 1st rounders or high-end prospects (like a Bowen Byram or Noah Dobson or Jake Bean or Oliver Wahlstrom) in the past, we'd be in a much better position now. Also why he shouldn't be afraid to trade a 3rd rounder for Vince Dunn or why he should be willing to part with a larger quantity of assets to get a Jack Eichel and acquire a player you can't just go out and find anywhere. You can replace a Drouin or a Byron or a Lehkonen or a Chiarot fairly easily. Almost impossible to find an Eichel.