Major trade finalized between the Montreal Canadiens and the Panthers last year: the worst has just been confirmed for Kent Hughes with the pick falling even further

Initially, some were hopeful of drafting the phenomenal Connor Bedard with this pick, but quickly, it started to plummet.

This pick went from top-3, to top-5, to top-10, and at the end of the season, the Panthers finally qualified for the playoffs at the very last second.

This resulted in the pick falling out of the lottery and ending up at 17th overall in the first round.

Against all odds, as you know, the Panthers surprised one after the other in the playoffs: the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs, which caused this pick to fall back by about ten ranks.

Today, the day after their very surprising sweep against the Carolina Hurricanes, the pick obtained in the Ben Chiarot trade falls BACK AGAIN.

This is literally the worst-case scenario for Kent Hughes.

Ouch. It remains a solid trade, but it's no longer the big home run we were hoping for and that Kent Hughes was hoping for.

So that means that, barring trades, the Montreal Canadiens will draft at the following ranks in the first round in a month at the draft:

5th overall

31st or 32nd overall.

Just a few weeks ago, we could seriously hope that these two picks would be top-10 choices, and there was a big chance that one of them could go top-2 or top-3. Ouch.