Hughes Pulls Off Draft Masterclass, Reclaims First-Round Talent After Dobson Trade
Photo credit: Canadiens
The experts all seem to agree that the Montreal Canadiens had an absolutely exceptional draft weekend.
Not only did the team acquire elite defenseman Noah Dobson, but Kent Hughes and his staff also appear to have selected several solid young players.
Hughes may have even strengthened the Dobson trade.
Let me explain..
We mentioned this a bit earlier, but we wanted to dive a little deeper into the thought process.
In an interview, the excellent Martin Lapointe (of the Montreal Canadiens) revealed that the player the Habs selected at 34th overall - thanks to a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes - would have been their original first-round pick!
"Martin Lapointe said the Canadiens had Alexander Zharovsky slotted in the first round where they were originally slated to pick (16-17), so trading up to get him at 34 became an easy decision to make despite the high cost."
- Arpon Basu
- Arpon Basu
So we can indeed draw the following conclusion:
The Canadiens technically recovered one of their first-round picks that was traded in the Noah Dobson deal
The math is simple.
The Canadiens traded the 16th and 17th overall picks (plus Emil Heineman) to the New York Islanders in exchange for Dobson.
The Canadiens would have selected Alexander Zharovsky with the 16th overall pick - and they still ended up selecting him.
Kent Hughes essentially found a way to get back the forward they were going to draft with their first-round pick, making the Noah Dobson trade even more interesting! Wow!
Nick Bobrov also weighed in on the subject.
"Nick Bobrov on the Habs drafting winger Alexander Zharovsky in the 2nd round:
"The mandate was to find a top 6 talent. Usually top 6 talent disappears pretty quickly after a certain point in the draft. It's pretty rare when you find them a little bit later and there are circumstances that surround those drops.
In this case, we had Alexander in the 1st round.."
- Via HabsOnReddit
"The mandate was to find a top 6 talent. Usually top 6 talent disappears pretty quickly after a certain point in the draft. It's pretty rare when you find them a little bit later and there are circumstances that surround those drops.
In this case, we had Alexander in the 1st round.."
- Via HabsOnReddit
We love it!
| POLL | ||
JUIN 29 | 2625 ANSWERS Hughes Pulls Off Draft Masterclass, Reclaims First-Round Talent After Dobson Trade Do you think the Canadiens will sign an impact free agent this week? | ||
| Yes | 1533 | 58.4 % |
| No | 1092 | 41.6 % |
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