Tough news for the fans of the Montreal Canadiens
In the last few hours, a piece of hockey news has hit the Montreal Canadiens organization extremely hard, and the team's fans have received a solid slap in the face in connection with a missed opportunity.
It was announced in Vancouver that the team's new captain would be none other than young defenseman Quinn Hughes. So, after Brady Tkachuk, another player from the 2018 draft, who was on the Habs radar, becomes the undisputed leader of their organization.
At the age of 23, he becomes the 15th captain of the Canucks franchise.
Considering the rumors circulating at the time that it was a three-way race between Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Tkachuk and Hughes to become the CH's third overall pick, we have to admit that now, five years later, it's the worst possible scenario that's coming true, much to the dismay of the club's fans.
Last season, Tkachuk finished with 35 goals and 83 points in 82 games, while Hughes collected 76 points in 78 games, finishing as the league's second-highest scoring defenseman.
There's no need to make the comparison with Kotkaniemi, who hasn't even been with the Habs for two years now.
This situation clearly puts into perspective the risk of selecting a youngster who is lower on the top prospect ranking lists, in order to select a player for need. In view of the fact that the new staff did the same thing with its 1st overall pick in 2022, as well as with its 5th selection in 2023, let's hope history doesn't repeat 2018.
A poor top-5 draft pick can set back a franchise's progress for more than five years, and we have a good example of this with the failed selection of Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
| POLL | ||
Are you confident with the Canadiens' selections of Juraj Slafkovsky and David Reinbacher? | ||
| Yes | 49 | 50.5 % |
| Medium | 31 | 32 % |
| No | 17 | 17.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
