All Montreal Canadiens 1st round picks from 1979 to 2022

By JD Lagrange – Last week, I presented you with the first round picks from 1979 to 2022 from teams in the playoffs, so picks from the 16 playoffs’ teams. I did that to show the value of a mid to late first round pick and it was an eye opener to say the least. This week, I decided to push the envelope by showing the Montreal Canadiens’ first round selections in the same time period. And just as a heads’ up, it’s not a pretty picture.

For this exercise, I have added the team’s General Manager at the time. The reason for doing this is that often times, they are the ones taking the credit or the fall for the first round selections. So you will see the likes of Irvin Grundman all the way to Kent Hughes on that list, and we will break down their work comparatively to their successors or predecessors.

So without further ado, here are all of the first round picks by your beloved Canadiens since 1979.

DRAFT YEAR	GM	# TEAMS	NAME	# OVERALL	GP	G	A	PTS
1979	Irving Grundman	21	No 1st rd picks	-	-	-	-	-
1980			Doug Wickenheiser	1	556	111	165	276
1981			Mark Hunter	7	628	213	171	364
			Gilbert Delorme	18	541	31	92	123
			Jan Ingman	19	0	0	0	0
1982			Alain Héroux	19	0	0	0	0
1983	Serge Savard		Alfie Turcotte	17	112	17	29	46
1984			Petr Svoboda	5	1028	58	341	399
			Shayne Corson	8	1156	273	420	693
1985			José Charbonneau	12	71	9	13	22
			Tom Chorske	16	596	115	122	237
1986			Mark Pederson	15	169	35	50	85
1987			Andrew Cassels	17	1015	204	528	732
1988			Eric Charron	20	130	2	7	9
1989			Lindsay Vallis	13	1	0	0	0
1990			Turner Stevenson	12	644	75	115	190
1991		22	Brent Bilodeau	17	0	0	0	0
1992		24	David Wilkie	20	167	10	26	36
1993		26	Saku Koivu	21	1124	255	577	832
1994			Brad Brown	18	330	2	27	29
1995			Terry Ryan	8	8	0	0	0
1996	Réjean Houle		Matt Higgins	18	57	1	2	3
1997			Jason Ward	11	336	36	45	81
1998		27	Éric Chouinard	16	90	11	11	22
1999		28	No 1st rd picks	-	-	-	-	-
2000	André Savard	30	Ron Hainsey	13	1132	59	252	311
			Marcel Hossa	16	237	31	30	61
2001			Mike Komisarek	7	551	14	67	81
			Alexander Perezhogin	25	128	15	19	34
2002			Chris Higgins	14	711	165	168	333
2003	Bob Gainey		Andrei Kostitsyn	10	398	103	119	222
2004			Kyle Chipchura	18	482	31	73	104
2005			Carey Price	5	712	2.51 GAA	.917 Sv%	49 SO
2006			David Fisher	20	0	0	0	0
2007			Ryan McDonagh	12	806	71	272	343
			Max Pacioretty	22	850	323	319	642
2008			No 1st rd picks	-	-	-	-	-
2009			Louis Leblanc	18	50	5	5	10
2010	Pierre Gauthier		Jarred Tinordi	22	130	4	14	18
2011			Nathan Beaulieu	17	435	12	85	97
2012	Marc Bergevin		Alex Galchenyuk	3	647	146	208	354
2013			Michael McCarron	25	141	10	14	24
2014			Nikita Scherbak	26	37	6	2	8
2015			Noah Juulsen	26	58	2	8	10
2016		31	Mikhail Sergachev	9	389	41	158	199
2017			Ryan Poehling	25	111	17	12	29
2018			Jesperi Kotkaniemi	3	264	37	60	97
2019			Cole Caufield	15	104	43	30	73
2020			Kaiden Guhle	16	27	1	10	11
2021		32	Logan Mailloux	31	-	-	-	-
2022	Kent Hughes		Juraj Slafkovsky	1	22	4	4	8
			Filip Mesar	26	-	-	-	-

☞ The Canadiens have spoken 47 times in the first round in those 43 years.

☞ It is important to note that during that time span, the Canadiens only won the Stanley Cup twice, in 1986 and 1993.

☞ Three times, in 1979, 1999 and 2008, have they not had a first round pick.

☞ They had three first round picks in 1981.

☞ Six times, they’ve had two first round picks: 1984, 1985, 2000, 2001, 2007 and 2022.

☞ Twice (1980 and 2022) they had the first overall pick and only six times in 43 years have they spoken in the top-5 of any Draft. They are:

1st overall: Doug Wickenheiser (1980), Juraj Slafkovsky (2022)
2nd overall: None
3rd overall: Alex Galchenyuk (2012), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (2018)
4th overall: None
5th overall: Petr Svoboda (1984), Carey Price (2005)

Compare that to the Buffalo Sabres, who have picked top-5 in 8 occasions in the same time span, including 3 first overall and 2 second overall. Then to the Edmonton Oilers, who picked top-5 in 7 occasions since 1979, 4 times first overall including three years in a row from 2010 to 2012. Or even to the Ottawa Senators whom, since 1992, have had 7 top-5 picks, 3 of which were first overall.

By General Manager

Now, to make things more interesting, let’s break it down by General Managers. The reason why I have included the average number of goals is for continuity from the article from last week, when we specifically targeted the odds of getting a 20-plus goals’ scorer in the bottom-16 picks of the first round. In this case however, it includes all first round picks, not just the bottom-16.

GM	# of DRAFTS	# 1st Rd PICKS	AVG PICK #	AVG GP	AVG GOALS
GRUNDMAN	4	5	13	345	71
S. SAVARD	13	15	15	437	70
HOULE	4	3	15	161	16
A. SAVARD	3	5	15	552	57
GAINEY	7	7	15	471*	89

GAUTHIER	2	2	20	283	8
BERGEVIN	10	10	18	198	34
HUGHES	1	2	14	22	4

* includes Carey Price, not counted in AVG GOALS

Notice that I’ve placed a partition between Gainey and Gauthier. That’s because from Gauthier onwards, there are active players so those results will change. Although in Gauthier’s case, it won’t change much as his two players are Jarred Tinordi and Nathan Beaulieu.

☞ A couple of notes on Marc Bergevin’s picks:

Alex Galchenyuk, Michael McCarron (who just entered the NHL and NHLPA assistance program) and Nikita Scherbak are pretty much where they will end up in games played and goals.
Logan Mailloux is still in the junior ranks but has a very promising future.

☞ Because I know it’s important to some people, know that Trevor Timmins was in charge of Amateur Scouting (in different titles) since the 2003 Draft when he was hired by Bob Gainey. He served until 2021 as he was fired at the same time Bergevin was, last season.

Conclusion

I’ve decided to let you draw your own conclusion, particularly when it comes to the breakdown by GM. What I will tell you, however, is that this picture as an organization is not pretty, particularly that we’re not talking about a team that has had a lot of success in those 43 years. With that being said, if we did the same exercise, I fully suspect that the picture would be similar for just about every other NHL organization. Drafting is not a pure science and trying to determine the future of an 18 year-old teenager is almost impossible.

Fans should be encouraged by the more progressive approach take by the Canadiens since the hiring of Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes. Not that they are better at drafting, as that’s an aspect that remains to be seen. But the high level of emphasis put towards player development, both from the prospects’ point of view and the continuation with players who have reached the NHL, is very promising. Time will tell if it pays off in the long run.

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