Two years ago, during the NHL draft held in Montreal, the Canadian surprised his fans by trading Alexander Romanov for the 13th overall pick, which ultimately became Kirby Dach.
It was then Kent Hughes’ first draft as general manager of the CH.
For the 2023 draft, Kent Hughes has once again decided to trade away a first-round pick.
This time, it was the 31st pick of the auction (acquired in the Ben Chiarot trade) which was exchanged with a second round pick for Alex Newhook.
This Friday, Kent Hughes will have the chance to complete a hat-trick by trading the 26th overall pick (or 5th?) to improve his offense, which is a goal for Hughes.
Never two without three, as they say so well.
Stu Cowan recently published an article on The Montreal Gazette mentioning that we shouldn’t be surprised to see CH thinking about trading their late first round pick.
However, this year seems to have very good depth in the first round, and even in the second round.
If CH decides to draft with the 26th pick, Grant McCagg mentioned that it would be surprising if the club would draft a small forward.
Guys like Dean Letourneau and Sacha Boisvert could be interesting choices with the 26th pick, but if we rely on the training of the very recent champions, drafting at the end of the first round is not useful.
As Stu Cowan points out in his article, the Florida Panthers won with only three players drafted by the franchise.
And all three were drafted very high (Aaron Ekblad, Aleksander Barkov and Anton Lundell), at 1st, 2nd and 12th respectively.
All other members of the championship team were acquired by trade or by free agents, except for Gustav Forsling, who was claimed on waivers.
Well, it should be noted that free agents have a greater tendency to sign in Florida than in Montreal.
Additionally, the Panthers have not drafted in the first round since 2021, and do not have a first-round pick next year.
Not to say that drafting is not the solution, but drafting late is not necessary to have a championship team.
Acquiring players who can help you now to speed up the rebuild can be good, as Hughes has shown us in the last two years.
Let’s see what KH reserves us with this 26th choice.
A lot of
– Interesting.
– Another Canadian drafted in the top-10 in the NBA.
– It’s confirmed, Mikheyev has lifted his no-trade clause to go to Chicago.
– Mathias is right about that.
– He is generous.
– Well.
