Before Churla joined the Habs I believe he was scouting out west. So one would assume he had a big hand in any picks from out west.
2013- his first draft with us, we ended up taking 4 from the Q so that would seem to be more on Timmins since we know that's his backyard. Ghetto wasn't a bad pick for where they got him, Reway could have been something imo if not for the heart issues, Fucale who is with the caps in the ECHL turned into a steaming pile for a top 36 pic and Gregoire was picked 176th OA.
our best player from that draft is Leks, so don't see Churla having much of an impact there as a guess.
2014- our 1st 3 picks are from out west. Scherbak, Lernout, Koberstein. A total washout though I think the Scherbak pick at the time made sense and whoever thought we should trade up for Lernout should have been fired. He wasn't even good in the AHL, granted he was a 73rd OA pick but what a dud of a pick.
our best player from that draft is Evans from the OJHL. Was Frank Jay still with us then? If so I know that was his area, not saying Timmins doesn't sign off on most or all the picks as I don't know of course and always wondered as there's got to be some picks he's never seen like say some rando 7th round pick etc..
2015- 2 of the top 3 picks are from out west. Juulsen and Matt Bradley. Nothing really wrong there as after Scherbak they likely wanted to play it safe imo which makes sense. If not for injuries I bet Juulsen would have been the 3rd RD and been solid enough. Bradley was picked 131st OA so no biggee that he so far has been nothing more then a ECHLer. What really stings and this is more on MB is that it's looking like one of the best drafts since '03, i know he's not a fan of moving up and going from 26th to say 16th (Barzal - WHL) would likely have cost a ton and who knows if any teams would even move down that far in that range.
our best pick from the draft is still Juulsen since there's almost nothing left.
2016- was the year of the OHL, 4 of the 6 picks were from the OHL but only 1 top 60 pick stings.
our best pick from the draft is Sergachev by a ton.
2017- was the year of the WHL again, 4 of our first 6 picks were from out west. So far 2 are out of the organization, and the other 2 have struggled at the pro level but it's still very early and could easily end up solid NHLers with the tools they have or not we'll just have to wait and see.