Montreal Canadiens’ Top 5 Drafts in Modern Times – Hockey Writer – Canadian History
*This article was originally published in April 2023
In the modern history of the NHL, the Montreal Canadiens have won five draft picks. From the All-Star goalkeeper at Carey price to the first pick of Juraj Slafkovsky in 2022, each player has provided a range of skills for Bleu Blanc Rouge, which helps to elevate the team from the lottery draft to relevance. This year, they have a great chance to land in another option in the top five.
While the 2023 NHL playoffs are officially out of the Habs issue, the opportunity has come again, adding another that can bring a set of tangible players to the team to enhance their future. According to the odds of the NHL lottery, the Canadians have a 7.5% chance of getting a first draft pick, with a 7.9% chance of choosing a second place.
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As we approached the end of the 2022-23 season, we looked at the history of the Canadiens’ top five in the NHL draft. From 1992 to today, covering the modern era, it is the four players who have helped shape HAB for nearly 20 years.
The top 5 choices for Canadians (Modern Era)
2005 – Carey Price (5th in total)
The 2005 draft lottery is memorable as it comes on the eve of the new CBA announcement and after the 2004 shutdown season. The draft itself dropped to 7 rounds, and the order chosen by the selected teams is based on the seasons of previous games. The Pittsburgh Penguins felt lucky by choosing Sidney Crosby’s first game, but the Canadians were in a good position, fifth overall. Finally pushing the center of the team to the team in the middle? Maybe the first six wingers? Habs chose goalkeeper Carey Price, which was incredible to the TSN panel.
At the time, Canadians already had Jose Theodore, who won the NHL All-Star Game twice and won the Hart and Vezina trophy winners in 2002. Mathieu Garon can serve as a backup job, leading experts to believe that the position between the pipes is fixed enough to be solid enough to give up a goalkeeper, not to mention the North American player in the North, whose voters are a game-winning draft. His answer? In October 2007, he won the Molson Cup in the first month of his NHL career and became the goalkeeper’s Habman leader in his 361st win in the 2021-22 season.
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Price became a perfect example of “what could happen” as a knee injury in the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs effectively lifted him out of the rest of the game, inevitably derailing his career. Price’s best moment was seven-time NHL All-Star, Olympic gold medalist, and won the winner of Hart, Vezina and Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, the best moment in the 2021 Stanley Cup final, where he won only three wins of his first Stanley Cup.
Unfortunately, time between him stalled sharply, playing his last game in 2021-22, beating the Florida Panthers 10-2 before defeating the next season.
2012 – Alex Galchenyuk (3rd overall)
During his draft year, Alex Galchenyuk missed two regular season games and six playoff games due to a knee injury, which has left many worried about their health. This hasn’t stopped the Canadian from being third overall, behind Nail Yakupov (first overall) and Ryan Murray (second in the blue jacket). In the weaker drafts of the past decade, Montreal has a edgy forward who can play both center and wings and has performed excellent game and goal-scoring ability with Sarnia’s Charlie Sarault and Reid Boucher.
During his rookie season, Galchenyuk paired with rookie Brendan Gallagher and stood out with the gritty Brandon Prust. The dynamics of sandpaper and skills were great for the youngster, who scored 27 points in 48 games, one point behind Gallagher. Two seasons later, he scored a career-high 30 goals and 56 points, and gained trust in his previous six minutes while the quarterback beat Habs’ top power play on the blue line. It was four seasons, but in the end, the third pick showed his skill and toughness while staying healthy.
Unfortunately, this is his pinnacle as Galchenyuk’s work begins to collapse. After scoring 36 goals in his final two seasons with the Canadiens, he was sent to Arizona Coyotes forward Max Domi, a move that was criticized by many when it was announced. After the deal, he was with Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota Wild, Ottawa Senator, Toronto Maple Leaf and Colorado Avalanche.
2018 – Jesperi Kotkaniemi (3rd overall)
Six years later, Montreal was again in third place, this time choosing to use Finnish size and skills with forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Habs scrutinized forwards like Brady Tkachuk and Filip Zadina, as well as defensive players Quinn Hughes and Evan Bouchard, who was proud and confident that Kotkaniemi was the answer they needed to improve the team’s top six and become a threat.
A few weeks after his 18th birthday, Kotkaniemi made her NHL debut, losing against the Maple Leafs and becoming the first to be born in 2000 in any of the four major sports. Amassing a considerable 11 goals and 34 points in 79 games, he won his place on the roster and showed incredible patience and calmness as he bounced up and down the roster, used in a different role on any given night.
Kotkaniemi impressed fans in the 2021 Stanley Cup when he scored eight points in 19 games and won the overtime title in Game 6 of his first round against Toronto. Unfortunately for Montreal, he became the retribution product of Sebastian Aho’s quotation in 2019. Kotkaniemi agreed to a year-on-year, $6.1 million offer, while the Canadians mismatched, instead, it was the Hurricanes’ compensation in the 2022 NHL Entraft Pershard Pers and third-round picks. He stayed in Carolina and signed an eight-year, $38.5 million deal in March 2022.
2022 – Juraf Slafkovsky (first overall)
Montreal may end at the bottom of the 2022 rankings, but they didn’t win the draft pick that year, earning the No. 1 pick. The Canadians went with Shane Wright, the top player predicted by experts, with 6-foot-3 winger Juraj Slafkovsky from Slovakia. At the time, it was a controversial decision because both he and Wright gave them the advantages and disadvantages, but Habs ended up getting it with scale and skill.
Slafkovsky was shocked and dazzled at the 2022 Winter Olympics, leading the tournament with seven goals in seven games and helped Slovakia get its first medal in bronze in hockey. Showing his ability to protect the puck with size and sleek hands, which allowed him to hang between defenders, he added tenfold in just a few weeks.
He brought enough confidence to the Canadians to get a spot in the 2022-23 season and scored 4 goals and tens in 39 games before suffering a knee injury that ended effectively. Slafkovsky, despite his slow start and abrupt end, brought a better future. He entered the 19-year-old in the 2023-24 season with a piece of fragments on his shoulders and provided a lot of proof for himself and those who cheered him on.
2024 – Ivan DeMidov (fifth in total)
In 2024, the Canadian once again won the fifth pick and chose Russian winger Ivan Demidov from Ska St. Petersburg. During his draft year, he scored 60 points in 30 matches in the Russian Youth League. It’s too early to know his future, but he showed promising signs in 71 games in the Russian top league. He also made his NHL debut in 2024-25, scoring goals and assists in two games. He even made it to the playoffs and scored two assists in five games.
