By Bob Trask – The Montreal Canadiens have 14 picks in the upcoming NHL Draft and it is unlikely that they will use all of them. Some picks could be packaged to move up in the draft, some could be traded for picks in other years and still, others could become part of a trade involving existing NHL players.

Nevertheless, we all like to speculate and I’ve tossed out a few ideas. They are partly wishful thinking, partly wild speculation and partly throwing darts at a dartboard. Some of these players don’t appear on most ranking lists and making an obscure pick always creates controversy, the same way the Alexander Romanov pick did back in 2018.

Here’s the list, which makes the unlikely assumption that the Canadiens retain all their picks this year. If the Canadiens choose more than one of these players, I would be surprised. That is the reality of how unpredictable a draft really is. One high profile player who is overlooked or one team going off the board early with a long shot can really impact the order of future picks. Have fun picking the list apart.

NOTE: The player scoring totals include all the regular season and tournament games played this season. For players who played for multiple teams in multiple leagues, their stats represent the total of all these games. League playoff numbers are not included because some playoffs are incomplete.

Pick	Round	Name	Ht	Wt	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts
1	1	Shane Wright	6’1	187	C	63	32	62	94
27*	1	Ryan Chesley	6’0	194	RD	91	19	30	49
33	2	Danny Zhilkin	6’2	183	C	66	23	32	55
54*	2	Sam Rinzel	6’4	190	RD	66	15	49	64
65	3	Topi Ronni	6’2	187	C	76	20	38	58
74*	3	Noah Warren	6’5	214	RD	62	5	19	24
94*	3	Jordan Dumais	5’9	165	RW	68	39	70	109
97	4	Reid Schaefer	6’3	215	LW	66	32	26	58
121*	4	Logan Morrison	6’0	179	C	60	34	66	100
130*	4	Connor Kurth	5’11	214	RW	62	35	46	81
161	5	Daniil Ivanov	6’4	209	LD	47	9	21	30
193	6	Miguel Tourigny	5’8	172	RD	65	31	49	80
216	7	Adam Mechura	6’4	198	LW	59	58	32	90

* Those are picks the Canadiens have from other teams and the ranking is based on the standings. Calgary’s pick is ranked 27th based on the overall standings. This will likely change depending how far the Flames make it into the playoffs.

More reading…

• NHL Entry Draft – Wildcards by Bob Trask
• HabsTracks – May 10th, 2022 by JD Lagrange
• Time For The NHL To Revamp The Points Attribution by JD Lagrange