Tag: Logan Cooley

NHL Draft: Habs Fanbase Set-Up for Disappointment

Published on by JD Lagrange4 Comments

By JD Lagrange – I cannot wait for the NHL Draft to be over. Not for the same reason as most. You see, I’m part of the group of fans who will be supporting the Canadiens’ decision no matter whom they will chose to select with the number one overall pick. Whether they go up to the podium and announce Shane Wright, Juraj Slafkovsky, Logan Cooley, Simon Nemec or David Jiricek, I will be thrilled, excited about the prospect of getting an excellent young hockey player for years to come.

Back when Marc Bergevin and Trevor Timmins were fired and Jeff Gorton came on board, and then hired Kent Hughes as the team’s GM, there was a wind of fresh air on the Canadiens’ organization. And I was one of the few who liked Bergevin. But still, after over nine years, a change for which I had no say was made. And the new guys, I feel, deserve for fans and media give them the necessary rope to do their job to the best of their ability. They may take that rope and run with it, or they may hang themselves. The future will tell but in the meantime, they deserve to be trusted.

Wright extremism

Shane Wright

But what really bothers me in the weeks leading up to the Draft is the constant pounding we’re taking on social media from Wright extremists. What? What’s a Wright extremist? They are the people who make it sound like there’s only one good choice in this Draft: It’s Shane Wright and nothing else. They have this ability to present Wright as a sure bet, the only sure bet. They present him as so far ahead, like it’s a Connor McDavid type of Draft.

I’ve tried to explain this phenomenon on Twitter but I can’t convey the message across. I’m not comparing Wright to McDavid nor do I think that some people are comparing the players. Clear? The McDavid analogy is a figure of speech. When a McDavid is available, he’s so far ahead of the field that picking him is a no-brainer. Chances are that Connor Bedard will be one, next summer. You cannot pick anyone else but Bedard. Too many Habs’ fans make it sound like this is such a draft year, that Wright is far ahead of the field. Yet, every single reputable draft expert will tell us that the gap between the top-3 or top-5 prospects is very minimal, unlike a McDavid year.

Set-up for disappointment

Now hear me out and allow me to explain. Imagine a points attribution system. After attributing the points, Wright is ahead by one single point on 15 Draft experts’ list. That makes him the consensus number one overall pick. If all of them have him up by one point, it even makes him a unanimous number one pick. So far so good, right? But he’s the consensus… by one single point even if there are 15 experts agreeing. The way some Habs’ fans are reading this is they think that he’s the consensus number one by… 15 points! It’s false information.

This way of thinking, this overwhelming show of support for one player with no grey zone, is toxic and very dangerous in a draft year like this one. Particularly in Montreal, particularly with social media to drive people’s mind, particularly in today’s society of entitlement and being right (or “winning”) is taking away any room for other options or opinions. As disappointment is based on expectations, this situation creates the perfect storm for it to happen.

I’m telling you now… if the Canadiens select Shane Wright first overall and someone else picked after him turns out to be better than him next year, and God forbid later down the line, even those who today feel like they should pick Wright today will turn on the kid and on the organization faster than a politician on his promises! And rest assured that you will have people in the media feeding their anger, as they always do, making the situation even worse.

And there are two ways that fans could be disappointed. The first one is the disappointment coming at the Draft, if the Canadiens chose to select someone other than Shane Wright. Remember the lady from the 2018 NHL Draft when the Habs selected Jesperi Kotkaniemi? The second possible disappointment is if Wright doesn’t turn out to be the best choice… down the line.

The solution

There is a simple solution to avoid such backlash but unfortunately, too many don’t want to hear it… or admit it anyway. Avoid becoming a Wright extremist. Keep an open mind. Recognize that the gap between Wright and the other two, three or even four prospects is tight and any of them would be a good pick. Trust the new management in place and accept their decision with excitement, with a smile. Avoid at all cost the “I was right” attitude.

This does not come naturally folks, not in today’s entitled society where too many people are easily offended, where they think that everything is owed to them. This is something that comes with life experience, something that a person needs to work on. Taking a deep breath and thinking rationally, understanding that our personal opinion might be our truth, it is not THE truth… It’s a mindset.

In this case, it’s understanding and recognizing that Wright, while the “consensus number one”, is not far ahead, that it could just as well be someone else. It’s respecting that Slafkovsky, Cooley, Nemec or Jiricek could very well be a better pick, even though our personal favourite might be Wright. Keep an open mind folks. Take it from people with perhaps a little bit more life experience. Oh old folks are no better. They have just lived through more…

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Getting Two of The Top-3 Picks At The Draft

Published on by JD Lagrange3 Comments

Go big or go home, they say. That’s what Brian Burke, then GM of the Vancouver Canucks, did at the 1999 NHL Draft. He had his sights on Henrik and Daniel Sedin and he had some work to do in order to get them. What did he do? He put his work boots and hard hat on and went to work.

To set the table, the 1999 Draft was not top heavy, very much like this year’s Draft. The Canucks already owned the third overall pick that year. So this is how he pulled it off:

  1. Burke traded defenseman Bryan McCabe and the Canucks’ first round pick in 2000 (the following year) to the Chicago Blackhawks for the fourth overall pick.
  2. He then paired the fourth overall pick and two third-round picks to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for the 1st overall selection.
  3. A deal was then made by Burke to trade the 1st overall pick to the Atlanta Thrashers in a deal for the 2nd overall pick with the assurance they would not take a Sedin. Atlanta took Patrik Stefan first overall.

This year

Now let’s set the table for this year’s NHL Draft. Much like 1999, there is no generational talent available this year. While Shane Wright is first on most people’s lists, the gap between him and Juraj Slafkovsky and Logan Cooley is quite minimal. You do have three fairly evenly matched players, all three predicted to become very good players but no star quality. All three come with question marks.

With that in mind, what if the Montreal Canadiens, who currently own the first overall pick, were to try to acquire two of the three picks at this year’s Draft? The New Jersey Devils are willing to trade the second overall pick, according to GM Tom Fitzgerald. So we know that at least one pick is available. However, contrarily to what some Habs’ fans and media seem to think, you don’t get the second overall for a Josh Anderson and a pick or prospect. And quantity never equals quality. You have to give something the team wants.

Obviously, there are many options and it can get quite convoluted. However, in both scenarios presented, I’m involving the Dallas Stars.

TO DALLASTO MONTREAL
Jeff Petry
33rd overall pick 2022		18th overall pick

Option A

The first one goes something like this:

TO ARIZONATO MONTREAL
Shea Weber
Jonathan Drouin or Mike Hoffman
18th overall (DAL)
Jayden Struble or Mattias Norlinder		3rd overall
27th overall (CAR)

The Canadiens then select first and third overall. It gives them flexibility as they can get Wright and Slafkovsky, or Wright and Cooley, or Slafkovsky and Cooley… or they go off the board and pick a center and a defenseman.

Option B

Or a second option could go along those lines:

TO ARIZONATO MONTREAL
1st overall
Shea Weber
Jonathan Drouin or Mike Hoffman
Jayden Struble or Mattias Norlinder		3rd overall
27th overall (CAR)
Cam Dineen
TO NEW JERSEYTO MONTREAL
Cam Dineen
Jan Mysak or Brett Stapley
18th overall (DAL)		2nd overall

Montreal then gets to pick second and third overall. Assuming that Arizona picks Shane Wright, the Habs then get Slafkovsky and Cooley, so they have their goals’ scoring power forward AND a top two lines center. They also still own two first round picks, number 26 (CGY) and 27 (CAR), which they could package to move up if they want as based on a recent article, it could be worth a 12-16 overall pick. And if the Wright fanatics think for a second that he’s worth more than both those guys, let them think that as they’re hopeless.

Or you think of other ways to get two early picks, as there are plenty of possibilities. Or you can have the vanilla Draft: the Canadiens pick Wright… or Slafkovsky… or Cooley. Nothing wrong with vanilla. It’s good. It’s safe. It’s easy. But it still leaves a lot of work to do for shedding salary and might not jump start or accelerate the reset as much as getting two of the top three picks would do.

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