CENTRES! CENTRES! CENTRES!
Five takeaways from Habs’ draft
Here are five things we learned on NHL draft weekend:
1 Marc Bergevin isn’t committed to drafting the best player available
The Canadiens used the third overall pick to select Finnish centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who was not the best player available on Friday night. But Kotkaniemi was the best centre available and the Canadiens are betting that, when the draft is evaluated down the line, Kotkaniemi will stand out as one of the elite players.
For the time being, Kotkaniemi is a prospect. When assistant general manager Trevor Timmins was asked whether Kotkaniemi would be in the Montreal lineup next season, he said it wasn’t likely. Kotkaniemi will come to training camp in September with the intention of playing in the NHL, but the most likely scenario is to plug a hole through free agency or struggle through another season of Jonathan Drouin playing out of position. The fun should begin in 2019-20 when Kotkaniemi and 2017 first-rounder Ryan Poehling fill the holes in the middle.
2
Max Pacioretty wants to stay in Montreal
There was a distraction on Saturday when there were reports that captain Max Pacioretty was bring traded to the Los Angeles Kings. There was a deal on the table, but it didn’t go anywhere because Pacioretty, who is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent next July, wouldn’t agree to signing an extension with the Kings.
That decision is the clearest signal Pacioretty is sincere when he says he loves Montreal and wants to continue plying with the Canadiens. How often have we heard complaints that it’s difficult to lure players to Montreal? Here we have a player who has made his family home in Montreal and the team wants to trade him? The Canadiens made a bad decision when they sent P.K. Subban packing, but it’s time to learn from that mistake. When the free agency frenzy dies down, Bergevin should sit down with Pacioretty’s new agent, Allan Walsh, and hammer out a contract extension.
3
Centres of attention
Bergevin is fond of saying you can never have too many defencemen, but the philosophy in this draft seemed to be you can never have too many centres. The Canadiens selected 11 players and seven of them were centres. Timmins acknowledged the Canadiens had a need in the middle, but he said several prospects have played on the wing.
“We’re drafting these players as centres, but some of them can be moved to the wing,” Timmins said. “It’s easier for a centre to learn to play the wing than to move a winger to centre.”
This is the lesson learned from the experiences with Drouin and Alex Galchenyuk.
As for defencemen, the Canadiens drafted only two blueliners and this is another area in which Bergevin can go shopping with his $18 million of cap space.
4
Size doesn’t matter
The evolving environment in the NHL places a greater emphasis on speed and skill and that guided the Canadiens’ choices. The six-foot-two Kotkaniemi joined Jesse Ylonen, Jacob Olofsson and Samuel Houde as the Montreal selections six feet or taller.
While the Canadiens have a stated goal of getting bigger in the middle, it’s interesting to note the Canadiens’ top goal scorers last season were Brendan Gallagher and Paul Byron and they are both listed at five-foot-nine. Throw in the early success of defenceman Victor Mete, and you understand that speed, skill and a large measure of determination make up for a lack of verticality.
One indication of a player’s mindset is to ask him about his heroes. Cam Hillis and Jack Gorniak are both five-foot-11 and they both said they aspire to play like Gallagher. You couldn’t ask for a better role model.
5 Hockey is a small world
In every draft, there are surprises. There are players projected to go in the first round who are still sitting in the stands Saturday afternoon. There are early-round picks who send the media scrambling through the internet as they wonder: Where did this guy come from?
The Canadiens produced one of those moments in the second round where they selected Russian defenceman Alexander Romanov with the 38th overall pick. Central Scouting rated Romanov 115th among European skaters. TSN’s Bob McKenzie was the lone analyst who rated him in the top 100 prospects and he placed him at No. 83.
So what made the Canadiens think Romanov was worth a second-round pick?
It turned out to be a matter of doing their homework and relying on genes.
Russian scout Artem Telepin watched him play for CSKA Moscow’s junior team and Romanov and Ylonen, the 32nd pick overall, were among the 18 players Montreal invited to a mini-combine in Stockholm.
As for the genes, Romanov’s father, Stanislav, played in the Russian League. Then there is his grandfather, Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, or Bill as he was referred to when he was an assistant coach in Winnipeg and Phoenix. An Olympic gold medallist as a defenceman with the Soviet Union at the 1984 Olympics, Bill now coaches AK Bars Kazan, which is Andrei Markov’s team in the KHL. When Bilyaletdinov coached in Phoenix, he worked alongside Paul MacLean, whose son David scouts for Montreal.