HF Habs: Montreal's 2020 Draft Class (Immediate Thoughts?)

[badfish]

I was wondering if there's a second motive to trading picks this year for next year. A motive beyond contract numbers. We've already saw a number of teams cut scouting staff due to the pandemic. Perhaps the Habs don't intend on doing this and feel that they can beat the odds on next year's picks because the lack of scouting will let some players fall who may not have otherwise. This depends on draft eligible players getting to play of course.

 

[Stive Morgan]

I have to say the best part of the last 2 days for me was reading your comments on Guhle. Everyone else's sure, but given your exposure... I'm kind of excited to see him a in a few years.

Already playing well and his potential is even higher. He's a great pick

 

[le_sean]

I love the Guhle pick considering they only went with forwards the rest of the way. When you consider his size and skating, I think he was the clear 3rd best defender in the draft. If you can get that at 16, you’re doing well. All of the talk about the Habs LD depth - they are all 6 feet or less, and most of them can play on the right side. He projects to be a LD version of Petry, which we can see is an invaluable asset.

I like the Tuch pick. Not as skilled as his brother but more physical. He’ll have time to develop in the NCAA. NHL teams pay a premium to get the type of player he projects to be.

Mysak is great value. I questioned some considering him at 16, but in the mid 2nd it’s amazing. I think the offensive upside is higher than what some scouts are saying. Not sure how a 17 year old scores like that in the Czech league then comes over and scores 15 goals in 22 games his first time in NA and people label him as offensively limited. Think he’s too smart to be limited.

4th rounders are all nice upside offensive projects - exactly what you want in these rounds. Guys going to the NCAA so we will have their rights for longer.

The rest, meh. Don’t know much about them.

I’ll give them a solid B.

 

[Habs]

C+ at best

 

[Omar]

- 1st Round -
16th: Kaiden Guhle (Prince Albert Raiders - WHL)

- 2nd Round -
47th: Luke Tuch (Boston University - NCAA)

48th: Jan Mysak (Hamilton Bulldogs - OHL)

- 4th Round -
102nd: Jack Smith (Sioux Falls Stampede - USHL)
*committed to University of Minnesota-Duluth*

109th: Blake Biondi (University of Minnesota-Duluth - NCAA)

124th: Sean Farrell (Harvard University - NCAA)

- 5th Round -
136th: Jakub Dobes (Omaha Lancers - USHL)

- 6th Round -
171st: Alexander Gordin (SKA-Neva St. Petersburg - VHL)



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Fresh after the draft, what are your thoughts? Who are you happy they took? Who don't you like from their selections?
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I don’t know much about prospects but my initial take is, this was supposed to be the best draft since God knows when, and somehow we didn’t address our scoring needs.

 

[MD thaivuN]

we didn't pick a Koberstein or a Ruscheinski. I guess that's a win

 

[Seb]

I have to say the best part of the last 2 days for me was reading your comments on Guhle. Everyone else's sure, but given your exposure... I'm kind of excited to see him a in a few years.

True, it's always a pleasure reading @Stive Morgan

 

[jaffy27]

I like the first 3 and the Russian at the end...the rest I really don’t know.....

 

[BLNY]

I think it might project as a bit more long term than the last two, but I feel there are some promising pieces here.

• Guhle has a lot of potential, and fell into their lap.
• Tuch might not be a natural offensive player, but his all around game, grit, and size would fit very well with the young group we have. If he makes room for skill players and becomes a garbage man, I've got no issue with that.
• Mysak is another guy that fell to them. Kid came over to the OHL, moved to center, and excelled. 3 short-handed goals in 22 games and more than a ppg. Smart and skilled.
• Smith and Biondi both headed to a great program. The later is a Mr. Hockey winner. They'll have time like Evans did, and there's no rush to sign them. That's key when it comes to managing contracts.
• The Russian kid Gordin is intriguing. Over age player, but his release is remarkable. I haven't been able to find much about his skating, but if the kid is teachable he could have been a real steal. This kid has lit the lamp wherever he's played. Did well at the U18s as well.

I'll give the draft a B, because there's a long term approach to most of the picks (NCAA bound).

 

[jaffy27]

I love the Guhle pick considering they only went with forwards the rest of the way. When you consider his size and skating, I think he was the clear 3rd best defender in the draft. If you can get that at 16, you’re doing well. All of the talk about the Habs LD depth - they are all 6 feet or less, and most of them can play on the right side. He projects to be a LD version of Petry, which we can see is an invaluable asset.

I like the Tuch pick. Not as skilled as his brother but more physical. He’ll have time to develop in the NCAA. NHL teams pay a premium to get the type of player he projects to be.

Mysak is great value. I questioned some considering him at 16, but in the mid 2nd it’s amazing. I think the offensive upside is higher than what some scouts are saying. Not sure how a 17 year old scores like that in the Czech league then comes over and scores 15 goals in 22 games his first time in NA and people label him as offensively limited. Think he’s too smart to be limited.

4th rounders are all nice upside offensive projects - exactly what you want in these rounds. Guys going to the NCAA so we will have their rights for longer.

The rest, meh. Don’t know much about them.

I’ll give them a solid B.

I’m
With you on this one, my exact thoughts.....B.....but if Guhle can dominate and make team Canada U20 team and play an important role there I’ll bump this up to B+

I’m super pumped about Tuch......And Mysak, oh man, this kid can be the best of the bunch, he oozes skill.....

will be fun to watch

the rest I’ll pay close attention to.....like the Russian pick too, seems like a scorer

 

[WeThreeKings]

All I can say is

If I notice how negative the board is.. we are too damn negative.

Product of the regime being here for too long.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Guhle - like the sounds and potential of him.
Tuch - Not the most skilled player. Can be viewed as a need prospect, but he's a need now and he will be a need when he's developed.
Mysak - looks to be average size, but good skill. We need some skilled forwards.
Smith - I don't like when the habs draft USHS kids, but I'm intrigued when I read that he turned down USNTDP.
Biondi put up better points than I originally thought in USHS and is going to a good program.
Farrell- read good things about him, but undersized.
Dobes- long-term project goalie.
Gordin- wicked shot. Could be a guy the team sets up to be a goal scorer if he can be passable at everything else. His backhand looks better than some NHLer's forehand shot

 

[The Great Weal]

Guhle is meh, wish we got someone with more upside.
Hate the Tuch pick. Screams like something we would do in 2013 after supposedly making sure we wouldn't do that.
Mysak is a good one, like the skill level.
Smith, I'm meh again, wish we got him later.
Biondi, love it.
Farell, like it a lot.

No clue about our last 2 picks. I'd give it something around a C+.

 

[jiboy]

I like our drafting strategy since 2017 , getting picks for next year is smart as we have to be able to keep our contracts under control.

Just need a little bit of luck with one or two late rounders and mathematically its bound to happen.

This draft is alright but covid really robbed us of a true potential game breaker.

The big team sucks a bit but the youth pool has lots of size and different skills , great depth. We could have an exciting home grown team soon..

Really lacking that one big blue chipper tho :/

 

[Harry Kakalovich]

I like the picks. Hope they pan out. Really like the sound of the 4th rounders.

It seemed like Bergevin targeted 2021 picks. It makes me wonder about the whole covid angle. Did the lack of viewing impact that decision? How will covid affect all these developing players?

 

[calder candidate]

This was a deep draft and there were plenty of guy that slip... also why do you keep wasting pick in questionable trade or move to 2021 which isn’t suppose to be a great draft...
Guhle a solid pick but not a fan of drafting defensive D in the 1st...
Tuck I don’t like I don’t feel like the is much upside...
Mysak not a guy I love but at this point.
Smith I didn’t know who he was rank in a lot of list ...
Biondi I love seem like chance to take
Farrell the guy probably more of a late 2nd early 3rd so it a pretty good pick
Dobes I hate still had some intriguing player on the board

Gordin he is a name on my list but I didn’t even know he was there 216th...
We traded so many pick so it hard to make sens of it but My pick would have been if we had all our original pick, I don’t even want to do the same exercise if we would have lost the playin series that would be depressing.

16 Mercer
47 Robin
48 Mysak
56 Finley
77 Jurmo
86 Coe
97 Pytlik
101 Powell
108 Biondi
135 Dufour
170 Johannesson
187 Pashin

 

[The Real Timo]

- 1st Round -
16th: Kaiden Guhle (Prince Albert Raiders - WHL)

- 2nd Round -
47th: Luke Tuch (Boston University - NCAA)

48th: Jan Mysak (Hamilton Bulldogs - OHL)

- 4th Round -
102nd: Jack Smith (Sioux Falls Stampede - USHL)
*committed to University of Minnesota-Duluth*

109th: Blake Biondi (University of Minnesota-Duluth - NCAA)

124th: Sean Farrell (Harvard University - NCAA)

- 5th Round -
136th: Jakub Dobes (Omaha Lancers - USHL)

- 6th Round -
171st: Alexander Gordin (SKA-Neva St. Petersburg - VHL)



​

Fresh after the draft, what are your thoughts? Who are you happy they took? Who don't you like from their selections?
​

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Didn't Habs have like 14 picks or something?

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

FWIW, Bob Mckenzie had Guhle, Tuch, Mysak, Biondi and Farrell all ranked better than where we got them on his list.

 

[DramaticGloveSave]

In terms of need, Guhle definitely wasn’t one. He, like Schneider, were two guys I was hoping would go before 16 in order to push a guy like Jarvis to us.

but value wise, he was certainly worth the pick. He’s basically a Nurse or Parayko. A shutdown physical beast who can also give you 30ish points. Those guys are top 4 fixtures and real life #2s. Mercer would have been my pick, similar value but more of a need, but I’m happy with Guhle.

Tuch gives us a developmental power forward and Mysak could be a 2nd liner.

All three of those guys should be in the lineup one day. Maybe not Stars, but that just wasn’t in the cards for us this year.

 

[Treb]

Didn't Habs have like 14 picks or something?

Allen trade, Edmundson trade, Domi trade, traded 2 picks for 2021 picks.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Didn't Habs have like 14 picks or something?

They used some in each trade they made so far. They used a 3rd + 7th for Allen. They used a 5th for Edmundson. They used a 3rd for Anderson.

So they went into this draft with 10 picks.

Today, they traded a 4th for a 3rd next year. And they then traded their 7th for a 7th for next year.

So they ended up selecting 8 players.

Next year's draft, they have 14 selections.

1 x 1st / 2 x 2nd / 3 x 3rd / 3 x 4th / 3 x 5th / 1 x 6th / 1 x 7th

 

[Goldenhands]

TBH, I didnt expect a defenseman with our first, so I missed the boat on Guhle, I was expecting Holloway Reichel Mercer in that order, still think Habs would have picked Holloway had he drop to us, but we will never know... Guhle probably represent a safer pick than Reichel in term of projectability, so I can understand the selection here, but Im pretty sure Chicago gets a solid top 6 player in Reichel, we will hear about him alot in the next couple of years...

2nd round, Im fine with both picks, dont think they have ton of upside, Tuch projects as a hard nosed third line winger, tough to play against ect while Mysak is obviously more skilled, but not enough for my taste to pencil him in a top 6 role at this point, I had him outside of the first round personally, he does alot of good things on the ice, he is pretty young too, one of the youngest kids in the draft, I like what I hear about him, but there is nothing standing out really about his game in term of offense, I think Lehkonen is a good comparable right now...

Disappointed we didnt pick with our late 2nd, would have liked Hirvonen, but I guess they werent as high on him and took the guess we could hit higher next year with the TB pick...

I had watched Biondie a bit while doing the simulated draft a couple of months ago, liked the skills, but kid is pretty raw and doesnt seem used to play structured, composed hockey, will have to work on the fundamentals of the game, but thats a nice gamble I think at that point of the draft... I think Farell is more likely to reach our system one day, but who know how much Biondie will improvre from now...

I had no clue who Smith and and Gordin were before today... Dobes, watched 1 or 2 games and his size is by far what I liked the most about him lol...

Overall, I think this draft is solid enough in term of collected assets, but unsexy as far as Im concerned, no homerun pick like last year, would give it a B-.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

Honestly? I'll check back in 2-3 years. Regardless of my opinion on the first few picks, things can change, and I've seen shit all of the mid to late round picks to make any sort of estimate.

 

[Ozmodiar]

All I can say is

If I notice how negative the board is.. we are too damn negative.

Product of the regime being here for too long.

There’s negativity, but it’s organic, at least.

 

[EveryDay]

All I can say is

If I notice how negative the board is.. we are too damn negative.

Product of the regime being here for too long.

Post of the thread Imo.