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2008 NHL Draft Take Two: Fifth Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science, and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
2nd Overall: Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings (2)
3rd Overall: Roman Josi, Atlanta Thrashers (38)
4th Overall: Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues (4)

After some other defensemen received more votes than him in our first three polls, Alex Pietrangelo shot up the chart for fourth overall, presumably because of how well he worked out for the Blues in particular. While other teams may have decided to go with someone like John Carlson or Erik Karlsson, St. Louis likely isn’t complaining about their 2008 pick. Pietrangelo became team captain and led them to a Stanley Cup – basically exactly what you want when picking near the top of the draft.

To round out the top five, we move on to the Toronto Maple Leafs and their highest pick in nearly 30 years.

Stuck in the middle of what would be a long playoff drought and without a franchise icon to build around (long-time captain Mats Sundin was leaving town) the Maple Leafs decided to trade up in 2008 in search of their next superstar. It cost them two additional draft picks to move up two spots and at the time, general manager Cliff Fletcher noted that “the top four defensemen” were “special” and the team needed to get one of them.

While there were several special defensemen available – including a number that will be in the Hall of Fame one day – the Maple Leafs didn’t pick one of them.

Instead, they took Luke Schenn, the monstrous blueliner from the Kelowna Rockets. The uber-physical WHL defender was the kind of player that relied on his size and defensive ability at the junior level, stapling opponents against the boards whenever possible. It made for an impressive highlight reel but Schenn’s upside was limited even then, because of his lack of offensive ability.

In his draft year for Kelowna, he had just 28 points in 57 games, ranking well behind the younger Tyson Barrie, who would go in the third round a year later. The thought was that Schenn would be able to star as a pure shutdown defender, logging huge minutes on Toronto’s blueline for years to come.

It did seem to start out well, with Schenn heading right to the NHL a few months after being drafted and playing nearly 22 minutes a night with the rebuilding Maple Leafs. Some, in the years since, have suggested that thrusting him into a role like that may have limited his development but it’s not like Schenn was a true bust.

No, in fact, while he may never have lived up to that “special” billing that Fletcher put upon him, Schenn has still carved out an impressive career of 863 regular season games. At 32, he sits sixth among the 2008 class in games played, and he recently won the Stanley Cup two years in a row with the Tampa Bay Lightning, albeit in a limited role.

So while he may not have been the correct choice in hindsight, there is something to be said about how well Schenn has continued to find his place in an NHL that almost immediately following his draft went away from his type of defenseman. He probably didn’t deserve to go fifth, but there may still be 1,000 NHL games next to his name when it’s all said and done.

Who should take his place, in our hindsight draft? With the fifth pick of the 2008 NHL Draft, who will the Toronto Maple Leafs select? Cast your vote below.

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2008 NHL Draft Take Two: Fourth Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science, and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
2nd Overall: Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings (2)
3rd Overall: Roman Josi, Atlanta Thrashers (38)

The 2020 Norris Trophy winner was able to edge out a couple of other elite defensemen, as more than 46% of our readers felt Josi was the right choice at third overall. Comparing him to the Zach Bogosian pick that the Thrashers actually went with will certainly drive Winnipeg Jets fans crazy, as Josi has spent his entire career to this point with the team that picked him and is coming off a 96-point campaign that puts him at the very top of the list for offensive seasons by defensemen in the salary cap era.

After Stamkos, Doughty, and Josi come off the board, we move to fourth overall which was held by the St. Louis Blues.

Despite his name not coming up in the first three picks of our redraft, the Blues have never regretted their selection of Alex Pietrangelo. After watching Doughty and Bogosian go off the board, the Blues decided to go another defenseman and selected the King City, Ontario native who had just put up 13 goals and 53 points with the Niagara IceDogs.

Pietrangelo, who actually played with Stamkos on the same summer league minor hockey team, had been a top prospect in the Toronto area for a long time and was seen as a much more well-rounded option than some of the other defensemen available at that point. He had been ranked fifth among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting and seemed like a potential franchise defenseman that would have been in the running for an even higher pick in some weaker years.

That’s exactly what the Blues got, though it did take a little bit of time for Pietrangelo to actually get there. Unlike Doughty and Bogosian, who both went to the NHL as teenage defensemen, Pietrangelo would only play a handful of games before being sent back to the OHL in both 2008-09 and 2009-10. By the time he arrived full-time in 2010-11, he was pretty much a finished product and scored 11 goals and 43 points while logging 22 minutes a night.

He would have an “A” on his sweater by his fourth season (the same year he won an Olympic gold medal) and would eventually take over as captain of the Blues in 2016.

One of the most consistent two-way defenders in the league, Pietrangelo has 517 points in 879 career regular season games and has averaged nearly 25 minutes. He led the Blues to the Stanley Cup in 2019, even scoring the championship-clinching goal.

Because of that Cup, St. Louis likely wouldn’t trade that pick for anything. But would they have been better off with someone else? Would that Blues team have been even more dangerous with another player?

With the fourth pick in the 2008 NHL Draft, who should the St. Louis Blues select? Cast your vote below.

Poll: Who Will Win The Pacific Division?

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Last season, there was a significant disparity in the quality of teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences, especially among playoff teams. But there was an even more exaggerated difference between the Pacific Division and the rest of the league, with three Pacific teams (Anaheim, San Jose, Seattle) finishing under the 80-point mark.

However, nearly every Pacific Division team made significant roster changes this offseason, leading to what will likely be a shuffling of the deck in the Pacific’s hierarchy and overall strength.

With any major moves among Pacific teams likely settled at this stage, it’s now a safe exercise to cautiously issue some predictions about how the division will evolve in 2022-23. How will the Calgary Flames fare after their Jonathan Huberdeau/Matthew Tkachuk swap and adding Nazem Kadri and MacKenzie Weegar? Do the Vegas Golden Knights rebound from horrific injury luck last season that isn’t showing signs of stopping? Is Jack Campbell the goalie solution the Edmonton Oilers have been looking for?

Those aren’t the only major storylines, although they are arguably the top three teams in the division based on past years.

The Los Angeles Kings are looking to continue upward after a surprise playoff appearance last year, bringing in Kevin Fiala to help bolster their offense and push the team further toward another contending period. But Jonathan Quick’s consistency as he ages remains a question, and Calvin Petersen is coming off a rough season in which he lost the starting job back to Quick.

The Vancouver Canucks still need to shore up some things on defense, but they should still be in the playoff conversation with the additions of Ilya Mikheyev and Andrei Kuzmenko to add speed and skill to their middle-six forward group.

The Anaheim Ducks and Seattle Kraken both made notable additions this offseason too, and they’ll be bolstered by young centers bound to have breakout seasons next year in Trevor Zegras and Matthew Beniers, respectively. The San Jose Sharks may be the only team at this point squarely out of the playoff conversation, a marked change from last season at this time.

Now we ask you, PHR readers, to make your pick for who will emerge from the pack and win next year’s Pacific Division title. Make sure to vote in the poll below and explain in the comments!

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2008 NHL Draft Take Two: Third Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
2nd Overall: Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings (2)

While there were several quality defensemen to choose from, our readers decided to stick with what actually transpired for the Kings’ selection at second overall with nearly half of the votes going to Doughty.  Considering the type of impact that Doughty has had over his 14-year career so far, that’s not a shocker and with five years left on his contract, one that was briefly the richest for a defenseman in NHL history, he should be a core performer for Los Angeles for quite a long way to come.

Now, we move on to the third pick which was held by the Atlanta Thrashers.

They opted to make it back-to-back defensemen selected as they picked up Zach Bogosian, a promising two-way rearguard out of Peterborough of the OHL.  He also made the jump to the NHL right away as an 18-year-old and didn’t look out of place, logging over 18 minutes a game in his rookie year before reaching the ten-goal mark as a sophomore in a season that saw him jump up over 21 minutes a night.  The offensive potential was seemingly being reached while he brought plenty of physicality and shot-blocking to the table.  Early on, it looked like Bogosian was living up to his potential.

Unfortunately for Atlanta (and later Winnipeg following the move), Bogosian didn’t really progress too much more.  There was an outlier year in his first season with the Jets when he had 25 assists and 30 points but for the most part, he was more of a defensive defenseman.  That didn’t stop Winnipeg from handing him a seven-year, $36MM extension in 2013, believing he could still become that two-way defender.

That didn’t happen.  Instead, after a couple of injury-riddled seasons, he was moved to Buffalo along with Evander Kane in exchange for a package of younger players headlined by defenseman Tyler Myers and winger Drew Stafford.  With the Sabres, things more or less stayed the same for Bogosian – he was more of a defensive defender and was often injured.

With his contract making him a negative-value trade chip, Bogosian cleared waivers and eventually agreed to terminate his deal, allowing him to join Tampa Bay for their Stanley Cup run in a depth role.  From there, it was onto Toronto in a depth role before rejoining the Lightning last summer.  He still has two years left on his contract with a cap hit just above the league minimum.

All in all, Bogosian hasn’t been the impactful two-way threat he was expected to be but he does sit 16th in games played from this draft class and has been an NHL regular for 14 seasons now.

But was he the right pick for Atlanta or would they have been better off with someone else instead?  With the third pick of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Atlanta Thrashers select?  Cast your vote below.

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2008 NHL Draft Take Two: Second Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

On Sunday, we asked the PHR community to weigh in on who should have been the top pick and over 70% of the votes cast went towards history repeating itself with Steven Stamkos being the number one selection.  For comparison, Patrick Kane had over 85% of the votes to stay as the top selection in our 2007 series so while it was still a sizable majority, it was a little closer this time around as we move on to the next selection.

That pick was made by the Kings who opted for defenseman Drew Doughty.  He was coming off of two high-scoring seasons with Guelph of the OHL which had him ranked as the top defenseman available by most scouting services so the selection didn’t come as too much of a surprise.

It’s safe to say that it has panned out quite nicely.  Doughty played his way onto the roster – no small feat for an 18-year-old defenseman – and made an immediate impact as he logged nearly 24 minutes a night.  The following year, the offensive promise he showed at the major junior level came through as he picked up 16 goals (the most of his career to date) and 59 points (second-most).

All in all, Doughty is the only player from the 2008 draft class to play at least 1,000 career NHL games while he has been a four-time Norris finalist, winning the award once in 2016.  He has two Stanley Cup championships under his belt in 2012 and 2014 and at the age of 32, he still has been going strong, averaging more than 25 minutes a night in each of the last ten seasons.  It’s safe to say the Kings are happy with how things turned out with their selection.

But was it the right one; would they have been better off with someone else instead?  With the second pick of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Los Angeles Kings select?  Cast your vote below.

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2008 NHL Draft Take Two: First Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

The summer doldrums often provide opportunities to look back at the past – moves that have worked out and others that didn’t go exactly as planned.  The same can be said for draft picks – some early selections have panned out and become franchise players while others came up well short of expectations.  In the past, we’ve looked back at the drafts in 2005, 2006, and 2007 and now, it’s time to do the same for 2008.

This draft class was a pretty strong one with 33 players (and counting) playing in at least 500 NHL games while it also has some All-Stars and future Hall of Famers.  On the flip side, there were four players who never saw a taste of NHL action and certainly won’t be slotted as high in our redraft.

Over the coming weeks as we wait for training camp to begin, we’ll be going through the 2008 NHL Entry Draft to have the PHR community select who they would have picked knowing the result of the player’s career. We’ll include a list of players to vote for, and update the first round as it progresses.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had the first pick in 2008 after winning the lottery to hold onto the top selection.  They were faced with the choice of picking a franchise center or a franchise defenseman with Steven Stamkos and Drew Doughty being the consensus top two selections in Brian Lawton’s first draft at the helm.  Obviously, they opted for the former and Stamkos has been as advertised as the leading scorer from this draft class although Doughty has played the most games and has been nominated for end-of-season awards more frequently.  With the benefit of hindsight, did Tampa Bay make the right choice or would they have been better off with the franchise defender instead?  Or someone else entirely?

With the first pick of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Tampa Bay Lightning select?  Cast your vote below.

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Poll: Which Team Has Improved The Most This Offseason?

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It may not seem like it but we’re now less than two months away from the start of the 2022-23 NHL season. For the most part, teams have finished their remodeling and now have in place the roster that will start the year.

There are still some restricted free agents to sign, and Nazem Kadri is still without an officially filed contract, but the rest of the available players aren’t really difference-makers.

So now, with training camp a few weeks away (and players already starting to skate in groups) we can start grading offseasons. Who improved the most? Who missed the mark? Who will take a step back?

For many people, the Ottawa Senators have been the biggest beneficiaries this offseason. General manager Pierre Dorion clearly feels as though his group is ready to start contending for the playoffs, and made several moves to get them even closer. Alex DeBrincat, Claude Giroux, and Cam Talbot are now Senators, giving the team a veteran goaltender, a former MVP candidate, and an in-his-prime 40-goal scorer all in one summer.

But they aren’t the only club that improved.

The Seattle Kraken, for all of their detractors, added several interesting pieces. Andre Burakovsky, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Justin Schultz have arrived, not to mention the drafting of Shane Wright. While Matty Beniers isn’t exactly an offseason acquisition, having him in the lineup every night will certainly push them forward as well.

Then there is the Columbus Blue Jackets, who landed the summer’s top free agent in Johnny Gaudreau. The recently-extended Patrik Laine has to be itching to get on the ice with one of the league’s best playmakers.

The Detroit Red Wings added big pieces in free agency, the Anaheim Ducks brought in pieces like Ryan Strome, John Klingberg, and Frank Vatrano, and the New Jersey Devils nabbed some Stanley Cup experience.

So who improved the most? Cast your vote below and explain your thinking process in the comments!

Poll: Who Will Win The Gold At The World Juniors?

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The 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship is far from a usual one.  The tournament usually runs just after Christmas but it had to be rescheduled for August and runs from today through the 20th.

This is often a tournament where we get to see many of the NHL’s top prospects in the same setting.  That isn’t exactly the case this time around with many teams asking their top youngsters not to participate with rookie camps a little more than a month away.  However, there are still plenty of quality prospects throughout the lineups for this summer event which will help bridge the gap between a slow month of NHL activity and the start of camps next month.

The United States come into the event as the defending Gold Medallists after beating Canada in the 2021 event.  They’ll have a whole new goalie tandem with Spencer Knight now in the NHL while Trevor Zegras was the leading scorer in that event and he is now in the NHL as well.  The Americans have four first-round picks on their roster while forward Thomas Bordeleau is someone with a bit of NHL experience after playing the last few weeks with San Jose last season.

Canada, the host team for the event, has seen quite a bit of turnover from the initial event in December as there are nine new faces on the roster.  However, they’ll be led by returnees Mason McTavish and Kent Johnson up front along with the expected first-overall pick in 2023, Connor Bedard.  In total, they have eight first-round picks on their roster.

Finland took home the bronze back in 2021 and they have seven returnees from that squad.  Topi Niemela leads the way defensively while Joakim Kemell and Brad Lambert, a pair of first-round picks last month, will help pace the attack.  While most of their team remains intact from December, one notable absentee is Penguins goalie prospect Joel Blomqvist who had a dominant year in Finland’s professional league and is getting ready for his next season with them.

Sweden is a team that could have plenty of firepower with five forwards picked in the first round headlined by Isak Rosen and Jonathan Lekkerimaki.  On the back end, Simon Edvinsson is poised to have a big tournament that could help propel him into a battle for a roster spot with the Red Wings in training camp while Jesper Wallstedt is a highly-touted goalie prospect.  Overall, all but three of their 25 players are NHL prospects.

Slovakia looked to have an opportunity to make an impression at this event but most of their NHL prospects, including Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nemec (the top two picks in the draft last month), are taking a pass on the recommendations of their NHL teams but they still have a trio of drafted players plus a projected top-ten 2023 pick in Dalibor Dvorsky.

Meanwhile, Czechia has a dozen NHL prospects on its roster headlined by the sixth pick last month in defenseman David Jiricek.  If their matchup today was any indication, both of those teams could be capable of pulling off an upset or two as the tournament progresses.

Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Latvia round out the field, one that will remain intact for the 2023 event that begins in December as there will be no relegation or promotions from this event.

Who do you think will take home the gold?  Will it be one of the favorites, or will one of the lesser-known teams pull off some upsets and go all the way?  Make your prediction in the poll below.

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Poll: Who Won The Calgary Flames-Florida Panthers Blockbuster?

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Last night’s trade between the Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers involving Matthew Tkachuk and Jonathan Huberdeau will likely go down as one of the biggest blockbuster deals in the NHL’s history. For only the second time in NHL history, two players who were 100-point scorers the previous season were traded for one another, with the other trade involving The Great One himself – Wayne Gretzky (link). To underscore that, in this four-player deal, MacKenzie Weegar, who received Norris votes in each of the last two seasons and has established himself as a true top-pairing defenseman, was most likely only the third best player involved.

In the trade, the Panthers were able to acquire a 24-year-old superstar winger, one who scored 42 goals as part of a 104-point campaign this past season, crushing previous career-bests, as well as a conditional fourth-round pick in 2025 (0r 2026). On top of simply acquiring Tkachuk, Florida was able to ensure the player came signed long-term, as the teams worked out a sign-and-trade with the forward, who agreed to an eight-year, $76MM contract with the Flames immediately prior to the trade. That extension, likely helped by Calgary’s ability to give Tkachuk the eighth-year that no other team had, not only boosted Tkachuk’s value in the trade, but was likely a sticking point for any interested team, protecting them from the threat of the young star testing the free agent market next summer.

As interesting as an MVP-caliber-player for MVP-caliber-player trade is, this one is made all the more intriguing by considering that Huberdeau is arguably the better player as against Tkachuk, but it was Huberdeau that was sent along with Weegar, prospect Cole Schwindt, and a first-round pick for Tkachuk and a fourth-round pick. In Huberdeau, Calgary receives a superstar playmaker who has averaged over a point-per-game since 2018-19, including an incredible 115 point 2021-22. Not necessarily seen as the superstar-caliber player that the other two are, Weegar has quietly emerged as one of the league’s best defensemen, combining excellent puck-moving with superb shutdown defense.

The caveat in this deal, that makes it feel a bit more even, is the fact that both Huberdeau and Weegar will be UFA’s next summer, not coming with extensions in place like Tkachuk, meaning Calgary, unlike Florida, is at risk to lose their players rather soon. Even if Florida decided to hang on to both players and try to extend them, Huberdeau currently carries just a $5.9MM cap hit and Weegar just $3.25MM; an extension of either would carry a very significant raise, perhaps double each salary. Tkachuck’s extension, on the other hand, comes in at just $250K more per season than their current AAV’s combined.

Not to be forgotten in the deal is Schwindt, a 2019 third-round pick of the Panthers. The forward was a star for the Mississauga Steelheads of the OHL before turning pro. As a member of the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers this season, Schwindt had 40 points in 71 games, and was even able to make his NHL debut, skating in three games for Florida. As far as the draft picks in this trade go, the 2025 first-round pick headed to Calgary is lottery protected, and if those conditions apply, their 2026 first-round pick will be sent instead. The fourth-round pick headed to Florida hinges on that condition as well. Simply, if Florida’s 2025 first is not protected, it will be sent to Calgary and Calgary’s 2025 fourth is sent back. If Florida’s 2025 first is protected, they will send their 2026 first instead and Calgary will send their 2026 fourth back instead.

So, for the readers, in these early stages, who seems to be the winner of this trade?  Will it be Florida with their guaranteed reward of eight years of Matthew Tkachuk and a fourth-round pick? Or will it be Calgary, who received two stars that have every right to walk away after next season, as well as a first-round pick and a prospect? Of course, there are plenty of factors that can affect how the deal is viewed long-term, but for right now, we ask you, who came out on top? We encourage you to vote and continue the debate with your friends and family as well.

Full Trade:

Calgary Receives: Huberdeau, Weegar, Schwindt, 2025 lottery-protected first-round pick (or unprotected 2026 first-round pick)

Florida Receives: Tkachuk, 2025 or 2026 fourth-round pick

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Poll: Who Should Montreal Draft At No. 1?

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For quite a while, Shane Wright was held up as the undisputed first-overall pick for 2022. From the moment he received his exceptional status in the OHL in the spring of 2019, through his rookie season in the OHL, there was really no one considered his rival. The young center had dominated minor hockey, scoring hundreds of points in his final U16 season (playing above his age group), and immediately burst onto the major junior scene with 39 goals in 58 games for the Kingston Frontenacs.

Wright was made the youngest alternate captain in team history, and finished with an impressive 66 points in 58 games, despite starting the season as a 15-year-old. Unfortunately, he was not only robbed of the last few games of the OHL regular season by a worldwide pandemic, he also ended up missing an entire year of development in 2020-21, waiting for a league that never resumed play.

When the league came back in 2021-22, there still weren’t really any whispers about another player taking over the top spot. In September 2021, Bob McKenzie of TSN published his preseason rankings, writing that “it’s not even close” and all ten of the polled scouts had Wright at No. 1. In fact, McKenzie suggested that Wright was so far ahead of the field, he likely would have gone first overall in the 2021 draft, ahead of Buffalo Sabres defenseman Owen Power.

But then the season began, and right away Wright’s lead started to shrink. After missing an entire year of hockey he–understandably–started rather slow, scoring just seven goals in his first 17 games, while registering just 19 points in the same stretch. That wasn’t the dominating two-way center that everyone had expected, it was arguably not even the best player on his own team.

Suddenly, it became a race. Players like Logan Cooley, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Matthew Savoie started to get more press as rising options, though they still weren’t expected to really challenge for the top spot. It was actually Ivan Miroshnichenko that grabbed one of the ten spots in McKenzie’s mid-season scouts poll. That scout specifically pointed at Wright’s “lack of dominance” and suggested the Russian forward had a “higher ceiling.”

Though Miroshnichenko has fallen out of the race–through no fault of his own–the same arguments are being made for Slafkovsky and Cooley, as potentially having a higher ceiling than Wright. The question is whether that is more a case of overexposure to an exceptional status player like Wright, who has been in the public eye for so long, or if his season really did bring up reason for concern.

In terms of not being “dominant,” some may argue that Wright found his game and became exactly the player that many expected, once he shook off the rust. After scoring 19 points in his first 17 regular season games, he would record 75 in his final 46, finishing the year eighth in league scoring. Every player ahead of him is either already drafted or substantially older than Wright. His goal scoring did decrease, as he wasn’t even able to match the 39 he scored as a rookie, but Kingston was also a much more well-rounded team this time around, with plenty of options to put the puck in the net.

Still, his main competition had great performances of their own. Slafkovsky especially has been suggested as the better pick, including by Corey Pronman of The Athletic, who recently listed him ahead of Wright as the best player available. The Slovakian winger has performed brilliantly at every challenge, including taking home MVP honors at the Olympics.

So who should Montreal select at the very top? Do they go with the player who everyone believed would be No. 1, or go with the late riser who has shown a consistent ability against higher level competition? What about the American center, who will be entering the college system that general manager Kent Hughes is so familiar with? Is there a chance they go with someone else entirely, believing that there is a higher upside on defense perhaps?

The Canadiens met with several of the top names at this week’s scouting combine, doing their due diligence when they can. Cast your vote below on who you think they should pick later this summer, and make sure to leave a comment to explain why!

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