The Habs may be preparing to repeat history with 1st round mistake, which would be hilarious for Leafs fans
The history that exists between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs is well documented. Two of the NHL's oldest and most storied franchises, bitter division rivals.. what's not to love about the dynamic between the Leafs and the Habs?
Much to the dismay of Leafs Nation, the Canadiens pulled the lucky lottery numbers last month and earned the right to draft promising young Brampton, Ontario native Shane Wright, who could end up being the Habs' franchise center. Or will he?
A report from Ryan Novozinsky, a trusted New Jersey Devils correspondent, surfaced on Tuesday afternoon that Habs GM Kent Hughes has not yet made a decision regarding the Habs' first pick. These worse came from Kent Hughes himself, so it's not exactly second-hand knowledge or hearsay. When asked "Wright or Slafkovsky?", Hughes stated "To be perfectly honest, we don't know yet."
There's nothing wrong with Juraj Slafkovsky as a prospect. If that's who the Habs choose to use their 1st overall pick on, I'm sure they'll be happy with his game. A 6'4 power forward pushing 220 lbs is nothing to sneer at. The Slovak winger notched 5 goals and 10 points in 31 games in Finland's top men's league. He also notched 7 goals in 7 games for Slovakia at the 2022 Olympics. He's a lot of things, but with all due respect, he's not Shane Wright.
Wright was granted exceptional player status after a 150-point campaign in 72 games for the Don Mills Flyers in minor midget at just 15 years old, which means that he was eligible to be drafted into the OHL a full year ahead of schedule.
Wright came out slower than expected in his rookie season in the OHL recording just 66 points in 58 games in 2019-20 and then lost his entire 2020-21 season due to the pandemic cancelling the OHL season. A young player's sophomore season in major junior is a very important developmental time and Wright missed out on that entirely. So when he came out in 2021-22 and notched 32 goals and 94 points in 63 games for the Kingston Frontenacs, it all but secured his spot atop the draft board for the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, which is slated to happen in Montreal on July 7th an 8th.
This late push by Slafkovsky and USHL standout Logan Cooley, in my opinion, is likely due to the fact that everyone expected Wright to be a 120-point player in what is technically his 3rd year of OHL eligibility. I'm simply not ready to write anyone off because of the pandemic robbing them of an entire season.
In my opinion, the Habs selecting Slafkovsky or Cooley would not be unlike when they elected to draft Finnish center Jesperi Kotkaniemi with the 3rd overall pick instead of going with Brady Tkachuk, who went 4th overall to Ottawa (now captain of the Senators). The miss may not be as wide, but it would still be a miss and I'm sure Leafs fans would enjoy it as much as they enjoyed watching Carolina offer sheet Kotkaniemi and leaving Montreal with a draft pick that essentially turned into Christian Dvorak, who also flopped for the Habs last season.
Exceptional status players don't come around all that often, so when they do, you simply don't pass on one. Sure, the Habs could still lean towards Wright in the end, but the fact that there's some doubt there is enough to make Leafs fans chuckle, even 3 weeks before the draft.
