The Canadiens have just officially stolen a first-round pick, and it's major

Some journalists are quick to label certain players as a "steal" of the draft, but in the case of Joshua Roy, he truly is one.

The one who was drafted with the 150th pick in the 2021 draft (5th round) is now a first-round pick. Wow.

Transforming a 5th-round pick into a first-round pick is major for an organization like the Montreal Canadiens.

Scott Wheeler, who is probably the most renowned expert in evaluating young players, has just published his new ranking of the 2021 draft.

In short, he redid the entire order of the 2021 draft as if we had to redo that selection session as of today.

It's a very interesting exercise.

According to Wheeler, if this draft were to be redone today, the 1st overall pick would still be Owen Power, the 2nd overall pick would be Luke Hughes (4th in 2021), the 3rd overall pick would be Wyatt Johnston (23rd in 2021), the 4th overall pick would be Mason McTavish, and the 5th overall pick would be Matty Beniers.

A bit further down in the first round, we indeed find two players from the Montreal Canadiens:

Solid!

This means that the Montreal Canadiens managed to get the 18th best player of this selection session with the 150th pick!

That's how to drastically speed up a rebuild.

Roy, 20 years old, scored 32 points in 41 games with the Laval Rocket last season, as well as 9 points in 23 games with the Montreal Canadiens.

See the full ranking right here:

This looks promising!