How many teams in history can boast of having had three players chosen among the top twenty in the same draft… just four years after the draft in question?
Even with three first-round picks, the feat is almost impossible to achieve. The Canadian had three from the 2019 crop in his first two lines Wednesday night in Toronto: Kirby Dach, 3rd overall pick, Cole Caufield, 15th, and Alex Newhook, 16th.
The first, a 6-foot-4 right-handed center, had two assists and played 21:22, 25 seconds less than offensive leader Nick Suzuki. The second scored again, his 49th goal in his last 84 games, and the third scored two goals in his first game with his new team. He had counted two in his last 33 meetings in Colorado…
It’s fascinating to see how CH was able to get their hands on not only three players drafted in the top 20, but three of the first nine scorers in the vintage to date.
In Caufield’s case, the Canadian was lucky enough to see a dozen clubs shun him because of his 5-foot-7 height, despite scoring 72 goals in 64 games in the U.S. development program in his draft-eligible year .
Among the players chosen before him, Alex Turcotte, fifth overall by Los Angeles, Vasili Podkolzin, tenth by Vancouver, Victor Soderstrom, eleventh by Arizona, and Spencer Knight, thirteenth by Florida, will begin the season in the American League, four years after being drafted.
Caufield ranks eighth in scoring in his vintage, with 85 points in 124 games, but he would climb to fourth place when taking into account the average points per game. He ranks second in goals behind Jack Hughes, but ranks first in goals per game average.
Dach and Newhook were not obtained because they were failed picks, but because they were not yet producing at the rate their respective organizations hoped. GM Kent Hughes managed to acquire them at the right time with an offer tempting enough for us to agree to part with them before their 23rd birthday. It took flair.
Now knowing a little better about Hughes’ proactivity, we can guess who initiated the talks with Chicago and Colorado. The Blackhawks were beginning an aggressive rebuild. Dach was coming off just 26 points in 70 games in his third season. His injured wrist was probably still tender. Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson wanted to build a fast-paced, intense club. Dach is more of a cerebral player and makes up for his lack of speed with exceptional puck protection.
Davidson initially demanded a top-10 pick in 2022. He was forced to settle for a 13th overall pick, to which Hughes added a third-round pick to compensate. The CH obtained this first round choice from the Islanders in return for defender Alexander Romanov, we recall.
So Montreal got Dach, perhaps a possible number one center, for a defenseman drafted in the second round in 2018 by the previous administration and a third-round pick.
Newhook was placed in a role he wasn’t ready for in Colorado: taking over at just 21 years old for a center, Nazem Kadri, who had just produced 87 points in just 71 games on a Cup-winning team Stanley.
Expectations were perhaps unrealistic in his case, despite a nice 33-point production in 71 games in his first full season in 2021-22 and his late-season lethargy convinced the Avalanche to accept a late-round pick. first round, 31st overall, and second round, 37th overall, in return for his services. The second-round pick was then used to get a slightly more experienced center, Ross Colton, 27, 32 points in 81 games with the Lightning last year.
Montreal therefore got its hands on two players under the age of 23 capable of playing in one of their offensive trios for a defender drafted 38th overall in 2018, a 66th overall pick in 2022, a 31st and a 37th choice in 2023.
According to analyses, only 30% of players drafted between 31st and 45th will have the chance to become regulars in the National League, and only 3% will be stars. The rate increases to 15% for the third round, with a 3% chance of reaching star status.
Marc Bergevin often said that it was almost impossible to find top-tier centers on the transaction market, that the NHL was not a PlayStation game. He himself proved otherwise by acquiring Nick Suzuki for an aging and embittered captain, Max Pacioretty.
Casually, four of CH’s first six attackers against Toronto on Tuesday were obtained in transactions before exceeding the quarter-century mark. The fourth being Josh Anderson, 29 years old today, obtained from the Blue Jackets three years ago for Max Domi, previously acquired for Alex Galchenyuk.
A bright and creative general manager can become a club’s most important asset. Kent Hughes is proving it, and Marc Bergevin opened the way before him.
Not only does the Canadian now have three of the first nine scorers of the 2019 vintage, but also the 21st, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, although drafted in the seventh round, 201st in total. The young man has more points in just 39 games than eight forwards drafted in the first round: Connor McMichael, Simon Holmström, Jakob Pelletier, John Beecher, Brayden Tracey, Ryan Suzuki, Samuel Poulin and even… Alex Turcotte.
If we averaged points per game, Harvey-Pinard would crack the top 10, but his sample size is still thin with only 39 career games. However, if this draft were to be done again, Harvey-Pinard would undoubtedly constitute a first round choice and Montreal would not only have three good players from this vintage, but four. Let’s see if Mattias Norlinder will manage to enter the discussions in the coming seasons.
1- CH’s second offensive trio stood out on Wednesday in Toronto. Simon-Olivier Lorange was on hand to analyze this meeting.
2- Alexandre Pratt likes 6-5 matches. Although it forces him to blow into the bag of chips emptied by his sons (the story does not say, however, whether they are regular chips, with ketchup or with vinegar).
3- Boxer Mary Spencer failed to avenge her defeat against Belgian Femke Hermans and win the IBF and IBO world champion belts on Wednesday evening. Jean-François Téotonio attended this boxing evening at the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal.
