Habs return to best available player plan

The Canadiens stepped out of character last June when they selected Jesperi Kotkaniemi with the third overall pick in the NHL Draft.

The team’s modus operandi has been to pick the best available player, but they drafted Kotkaniemi to fill the need for help at centre.

“We looked at (power forward Brady) Tkachuk, but we needed help in the middle and that’s why we drafted Kotkaniemi,” said assistant general manager Trevor Timmins, who is responsible for the Canadiens’ draft choices.

“Last year, we had a need and we filled it, we were thin in the middle,” said Timmins.

“If you look at our depth chart, we don’t have a big hole in the lineup. There’s a lot of talk about the need for a left-handed defenceman, but if we drafted a left-handed defenceman, it’s unlikely that he would be ready to play in the NHL before (Alexander) Romanov.”

Romanov is an example of the attention the Canadiens pay to what happens on Day 2 of the draft Saturday. Montreal has nine picks Saturday, including two in the second round and three in the fifth round, and Timmins is hoping that the work his scouts have put in has uncovered some gems. Like Romanov.

The Russian was projected to go in the fifth or sixth round, but the Canadiens selected him in the second round. Seven months later, he was the top defenceman at the world juniors and he played a full season in the KHL. GM Marc Bergevin has said Romanov could play in the NHL today, but Montreal will have to wait because he has one more season remaining on his KHL contract.

“Everyone knew about him, but some teams valued him more than others,” said Timmins. “Our Russian scout, Artem Telepin, saw him a lot and we invited him to our European combine and we liked what we saw. He had a lot of enthusiasm and we liked the way he cheered on the other players at the combine. He’s a team guy.”

The European combine and a similar gathering in Montreal are recent additions to the Canadiens’ tool box as they evaluate players. The combines are for players who were not invited to the NHL draft combine and they give the Canadiens a chance to gain knowledge about the prospects.

“After the first round, the chance of a player making the NHL goes down by 50 per cent and it goes down by 50 per cent with each succeeding round,” said Timmins. “Every player after the first round has a flaw and you have to determine whether he can overcome that flaw. You have to learn about their character, their competitiveness. The more information you have, the better chance you have of making a good decision.”

The Canadiens’ current roster includes a second-round pick (Artturi Lehkonen), a fourth-rounder (Victor Mete) and two fifth-rounders (Brendan Gallagher and Charles Hudon).

Mete, Gallagher and Hudon are all undersized, but Timmins said size wasn’t the major flaw in Gallagher’s game. He said there was concern about Gallagher’s skating, but Gallagher was able to overcome his deficiencies with hard work.