Canadians end up with No. 5 overall pick in NHL Draft lottery

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Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes is not a very superstitious man.

He wasn’t holding a rabbit’s foot or a coin or anything else that could somehow bring him good luck while watching Tuesday night’s NHL Draft Lottery on TV.

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In the end, the Canadiens ended up with the No. 5 overall pick for this year’s draft after finishing with the fifth-worst overall record in the NHL for the second year in a row. The Canadiens also ended up with the No. 5 pick last year and used it to select defenseman David Reinbacher.

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The San Jose Sharks won the first pick in Tuesday night’s lottery, followed by the Chicago Blackhawks in second place, the Anaheim Ducks in third, the Columbus Blue Jackets in fourth place and the Canadiens in fifth place. exactly how the teams finished in order, starting from the bottom of the NHL standings.

The Canadiens entered the lottery with just an 8.5 per cent chance of landing the No. 1 pick.

In the draft’s complicated lottery system, the Canadiens had an 8.6 percent chance of getting the second pick, a 0.3 percent chance of getting the third pick, zero chance of getting the fourth pick, a 24 .5 percent chance of getting the No. 5 pick, 44 percent chance of getting the No. 6 pick, and 14.2 percent chance of getting the No. 7 pick, the lowest they could have finished.

The Sharks had the best odds of landing the top pick at 18.5 percent. This is the first time San Jose will have the first pick in the draft.

The highest-rated prospect for this year’s draft is Macklin Celebrinia 6-foot, 190-pound center who posted totals of 32-32-64 in 38 games this season as a 17-year-old freshman at Boston University.

“To be completely honest, I’m not very superstitious,” Hughes said in a video conference after the lottery. “I think there are probably others in the organization who are more than me. But, certainly, when you’re watching (this is the third time I’ve done it) and you had the opportunity to draft Connor Bedard (who went to the Blackhawks) last year and Macklin Celebrini (this year)… then they “We are franchise-altering hockey players.”

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The Canadiens won the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft lottery, Hughes’ first as general manager, and selected forward Juraj Slafkovsky, who went 20-30-50 while playing in all 82 games this season.

“You obviously hope to win,” Hughes said of Tuesday night’s lottery. “But the reality is that the lottery percentages are such that the most likely outcome is that we come in sixth place. In that sense, we have had good luck with the lottery. When we finished last and had to choose first, we did. And we chose the other two based on the end-of-season classification.”

TSN draft guru Bob McKenzie released his draft rankings on Monday and, as expected, Celebrini was at No. 1, followed by qualified russian center Ivan Demidov in 2nd placeimposing russian defense Anton Silayev at number 3Belarusian defense Artem Levshunovwho plays at No. 4 Michigan State and a high-scoring center Cayden Lindstrom of the Medicine Hat Tigers at No. 5.

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The lack of offense from the forwards has been a big problem for the Canadiens, who ranked 26th in the NHL in offense this season despite allowing 48 goals from their defensemen, the fourth most in the league.

“I think what I’ve said is that all things being equal we would draft a forward, and I think that’s still the case,” Hughes said after learning he’ll have the No. 5 pick this year. “As far as having the opportunity to sit down with our scouts, which we will do next week, it will really solidify exactly where they see the group of players that are available.”

If Lindstrom is available at No. 5, he would certainly seem like a good fit for the Canadiens. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound center had totals of 27-19-46 and 66 penalty minutes this season with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers, while being limited to 32 games due to surgery for a right knee injury. upper body suffered in December.

Medicine Hat coach Willie Desjardins told NHL.com that Lindstrom’s injury and his absence for an extended period could affect the way some NHL teams view the game. Chetwynd, BC native heading into draft.

“But in saying that, I think clubs know what he can do when he’s healthy, that’s the positive side,” Desjardins, who coached the Vancouver Canucks from 2014 to 2017 and served as interim head coach of the Los Angeles Kings in 2018. -19, he told NHL.com in February. “He has athletic talent, he can really throw a puck and has great speed. He can dominate the boys. He passes the puck like a pro and is difficult to play against. He is even a better person. He can accept criticism. He smiles. He is excited to be on the track. He knows where he wants to go and is motivated to achieve his goals.”

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The only other forwards McKenzie has ranked in the top 10 after Lindstrom are 5-foot-11, 180-pound Finnish center Konsta Helenius, ranked No. 9, and 6-foot-11, 186-pound center Tij Iginla, son of Hall of Famer Jarome. Iginla, ranked No. 10. Iginla had 47-37-84 totals in 64 games this season with the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL.

This year’s draft will take place June 28-29 at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

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