Top draft prospects should be long gone when Habs pick at No. 26
An informal poll of the top prospects for this weekend’s National Hockey League draft revealed that none of them have been interviewed by the Canadiens.
And they consider that good news because it’s an indication they will be selected long before the Canadiens make their first pick at No. 26 overall on Friday night (7 p.m., TSN, RDS).
The five top-rated prospects and local hopeful Anthony DeAngelo took a trolley tour of Philadelphia Wednesday to promote the draft and said they were counting the hours until they find out where they’re going.
Aaron Ekblad, who is being touted as the potential top overall choice, said he has no problem going to one of the NHL’s bottom feeders, with the Florida Panthers holding the No. 1 pick, followed by the Buffalo Sabres, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and New York Islanders.
“I look at it as an opportunity,” Ekblad said after he and his fellow prospects recreated Rocky’s run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “Going to a team at the bottom of the standings gives me an opportunity to play right away, and I get a chance to be a part of turning things around.”
The other prospects who were also on board — Kingston left-winger Sam Bennett, Kootenay centre Sam Reinhart, Prince Albert centre Leon Draisaitl and Oshawa left-winger Michael Dal Colle — visited Love Park, ate cheesesteaks at Geno’s and took batting practice, sort of, before the Philadelphia Phillies-Miami Marlins game.
The players hit balls off a tee and the experience confirmed they picked the right sport. They received a little coaching from former majorleaguer and current Phillies broadcaster Matt Stairs, who said he was as impressed by Draisaitl, who is from Germany. After threatening to destroy the batting tee, Draisaitl found his rhythm and had several good pokes.
Stairs, who is originally from Saint John, N.B., revealed that he’s a lifelong Canadiens fan and said he couldn’t resist checking out the playoff action during lulls in the Phillies games.
DeAngelo, who grew up in Sewell, N.J., before heading to Sarnia to play major junior, is the only member of Wednesday’s group who figures to be around when the Canadiens pick, but he represents a risk. The undersized defenceman — he’s 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds — put up great offensive numbers with the Sting with 71 points in 51 games. But he also had some character problems, which is why scouts see him as anywhere from a late first-round pick to a third rounder. He ran afoul of the Ontario Hockey League’s harassment and diversity rules and also had a run-in with an on-ice official.
There are a number of variables that come into play in trying to predict a late-round pick. Does the Canadiens’ list jive with the various scouting services? Will another team share Canadiens head scout Trevor Timmins’s vision of future success for an unproven teenager?
The answer will come late Friday as the first round grinds to a close at the Wells Fargo Center. In the meantime, here are some players who could be available when the Canadiens make their selection: Adrian Kempe: The 6-foot-1, 178-pounder has been playing for Modo in the Swedish league, and while there are questions about his skill level, he has impressed scouts with his size and skating. The Canadiens have paid a lot of attention to Swedish players in recent years, but getting them to stay in North Amer- ica has proved to be a problem. Sebastien Collberg, Jacob De La Rose and Magnus Nygren have all been given deals that allow them to go home if they don’t stick in the NHL when it might have been better to keep them in Hamilton to develop with the American Hockey League’s Bulldogs. Jack Glover: Projected as a big, mobile defenceman, the 6-foot-3, 190-pounder is headed to the University of Minnesota after playing with the U.S. National Team Development Program. He’s a righthanded shot (always an asset for a defenceman) but there are questions about his consistency and competitiveness. The Canadiens have drafted two defencemen from Minnesota in the first round in recent memory and the question is whether he’ll become the next Ryan McDonagh or the next David Fischer. Nikolai Goldobin: At least one mock draft has the Canadiens selecting the Moscow native who lit it up on a bad Sarnia Sting team. Goldobin had 38 goals and 56 assists in 67 games and finished seventh in the OHL scoring race. The Russian factor might not be a concern for the Canadiens, but Goldobin is 5-foot-11 and 178 pounds and Montreal might be looking for more size. Ivan Barbashev: TSN’s Craig Button has Montreal picking the Russian left-winger who has spent the past two years in Moncton. He has decent size at 6-foot and 180 pounds and scouts describe him as a North American-style player who is a winner. Conner Bleackley: He is a solid at 6-foot and 194 pounds, but the quality that endears him to scouts is his character. Kevin Dineen described Bleackley as the hardest worker on the Canadian under-18 team and he was captain in Red Deer, a rare honour for an 18-year-old. Josh Ho-Sang: Some scouts feel the Windsor Spitfires right-winger is the most talented player in the draft, but the outspoken son of a Jamaican tennis pro is too much of an individual. He recently told Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons he was the best player in the draft and he sounded a bit like a certain Montreal defenceman with an abundance of confidence.