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My Hainsight: Who Will the Habs Pick? |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
There’s one thing we know for sure, the Canadiens won’t be able to pick Connor Bedard. The consensus number one this year is no Shane Wright, he’s a generational player, the kind of player no-one would pass on, so come June 28th, he’ll be putting on a Chicago Blackhawks jersey. After that though, things get a little bit more complicated. Even so, I think we can pencil Adam Fantilli in as the Ducks’ pick at number 2.
The third team to speak, the Columbus Blue Jackets, have been active on the trade market in the last few days adding both Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson to their blue line, furthermore, they drafted David Jiricek with the 6th overall pick last year, meaning that they’ll probably be looking for reinforcements up front. Even with Bedard off the board, there will still be a lot of interesting options available to them. Russian winger Matvei Michkov might just be the most talented player available on the day but picking him remains a bit of a gamble. Swedish center Leo Carlsson is 6-foot-3 and has a great skill set to booth, American center Will Smith has got amazing hands and vision and right winger Ryan Leonard has got some sandpaper to his game on top of a lot of talent. At this stage, I think Columbus will go for Leo Carlsson.
The fourth pick belongs to the San Jose Sharks and there are plenty of rumors that they are very interested in Will Smith. San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng even reported that a source told him that thre buzz at the combine was that Smith was flying over to San Jose to check things out. Time will tell if the rumors are true, but with the end of season Smith had and his performance at the World Junior Championship (he was named MVP with 20 points including 9 goals and grabbed the best forward title), it’s not hard to believe that he could indeed go at 4th.
If things go down as I’ve just described them, this means that the Canadiens could still pick forward Michkov and Leonard or they could opt to pick the best defensemen in this draft, Swiss blueliner David Reinbacher who’s right-handed, which is a rarity in the Canadiens’ defense corps. I truly believe that the Canadiens want to pick Will Smith, Kent Hughes has coached him in the past and he’s had a great year on top of impressing the team in his interview, but as I said, I fear he’ll be gone by the time the Canadiens go up on the stage.
I know a lot of people think that passing on Michkov would be a huge mistake, but I feel picking him would be too much of a gamble. Considering where the Canadiens are at in their rebuild, they need this year’s pick to pan out. Even putting aside the geopolitical portrait, Michkov has a 3-year contract with KHL team SKA. When Kent Hughes spoke to the media, he was also quick to add that when a player has a contract in place, he’s still free to sign another one once it runs out. When Alexander Romanov was in the last year of his contract, CSKA Moscow tried to force him to sign a new deal but cutting down his ice-time. The way Hughes spoke of the situation leads me to believe that the Canadiens are very weary of opting for Michkov. A team who’s already contending or just needs complementary pieces for a quick reset might be more willing to gamble on the Russian player, I wouldn’t be surprised if he went to the Capitals who’ve got the 8th pick.
Therefore, I believe the Habs will be choosing between defenseman Reinbacher and winger Ryan Leonard. Considering that the Habs’ new management seems to put more emphasis on offense than the former one did and how Hughes spoke about Ryan Leonard at the combine, I think he’ll be their man if Smith is off the board. When Hughes said that Leonard has a bit of Matthew and Brady Tkachuk in his game, he sounded a little bit envious. That kind of gritty play is something that’s lacking in the Canadiens’ top-six, and it would no doubt be a welcome addition to the team.
What about you? Who do you think will be putting on a Canadiens’ jersey come June 28? And why? Do you think one of the teams choosing before the Canadiens will be willing to play Russian roulette? Would that mean that Smith would still be available and the Habs would draft him? So many questions and so few answers… thankfully we’ve got plenty of time to speculate until D-day.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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