Four potential prospects advanced for the 26th overall pick
As everyone wonders what the Canadiens will do with the 5th pick in the upcoming draft, it's important to remember that Kent Hughes has another first-round pick.
The Canadiens organization also possesses another first-round pick. Acquired in the trade with the Jets for Sean Monahan, this pick, which ended up being the 26th, will also be very interesting to watch.
In a recent mock draft for The Athletic, Scott Wheeler and Corey Pronman took turns predicting the first two rounds of the upcoming draft.
After selecting Ivan Demidov (yes, really) with the 5th pick, Wheeler was also responsible for the 26th pick.
Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton have more options with the Winnipeg Jets' First-Round Pick acquired in the Sean Monahan's trade, targeting a specific type of player.
Wheeler's choice was Swedish center Lucas Pettersson.
What's interesting here is not so much the selection of Pettersson but the other possibilities Wheeler mentioned for the Canadiens at this spot. He highlighted three other centers:
As Charles-Alexis Brisebois points out, a profile emerges among these four players. Besides being of good size (except for Pettersson), all four had excellent draft seasons offensively.
- Beaudoin: 62 points in 67 games in the OHL, 6'2" center
- Hage: 75 points in 54 games in the USHL, 6'1" center
- Boisvert: 68 points in 61 games in the USHL, 6'2" center
- Pettersson: 57 points in 44 games in Swedish junior, 5'11" center
Even though Pettersson is slightly smaller, an 18-year-old can still grow a few inches. Besides that, they are all tall centers who flirted with or surpassed the point-per-game threshold in junior hockey at age 17." � Charles-Alexis Brisebois
It's worth noting that the three players mentioned by Wheeler�Beaudoin, Hage, and Boisvert�were all selected before the 26th pick in this mock draft. However, they might be available in reality on June 28th.
It's ironic to see Boisvert's name here, as just a few days ago, he was linked to the Canadiens. He even mentioned on RDS that he was very open to the idea of joining the Canadiens.
This wasn't all for the Canadiens in this mock draft for [The Athletic], as the club had one more pick, this time in the second round. Pronman selected a center with the 57th pick, Simon Zether.
Zether is a 6'3", 187-pound center. He tallied 4 assists in 42 games with Rögle BK in his first SHL season. He also recorded 27 points, including 11 goals, in 18 games with the same team at the U20 level.
We can see what they're aiming for!
| POLL | ||
Which player Habs will take with 26th overall pick? | ||
| Sacha Boisvert | 152 | 41.1 % |
| Cole Beaudoin | 84 | 22.7 % |
| Michael Hage | 42 | 11.4 % |
| Lucas Pettersson | 92 | 24.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
