In October 2021, despite a solid training camp, the Canadian’s first pick, 16th overall the previous year, defenseman Kaiden Guhle, was sent back to his junior team in Prince-Albert.
Drafted six spots further during this 2020 vintage, center Hendrix Lapierre caused a surprise by clinging to a position with the Washington Capitals at 19 years old. He even scored in his first career game, before being sent back to Chicoutimi for the winter.
The social networks of Quebec sports had already started to ignite the evening when Lapierre scored…
Two years later, Guhle has become a pillar of defense for the Canadiens, after a remarkable first season last year, where he had 18 points in 44 games while being used 20:31 per game.
Lapierre has not had the privilege of playing in the National League since that short six-game experience two years ago. He had 30 points in 60 games last year in the American League and was just cut by the Capitals again.
This is not a question of denigrating Lapierre, a great offensive talent that we should eventually see in the NHL, but of a warning for today’s column. We will discuss some surprises within the official teams at the start of the season concerning the 2022 vintage. But let’s always keep this adage from Lafontaine in mind: there is no point in running, you have to start on time.
Except for die-hard Shane Wright fans, the consensus going into last year’s draft was that there was no clear pick at the top.
A year later, isn’t it ironic that there will be more second-round picks in the NHL entering the season than players drafted in the top 6?
Matthew Poitras, drafted 54th overall, therefore in the second third of the second round, caused a sensation in the Boston Bruins camp. To everyone’s surprise, this forward recently compared to Mitch Marner by his captain Brad Marchand should start the year at the center of the third line with Trent Frederic and Morgan Geekie. He amassed five points, including three goals, in five preparatory games, a record for the Bruins.
Right-handed defenseman Tristan Luneau, 19, drafted one spot ahead of Poitras, 83 points in just 65 games last year in Gatineau, convinced Anaheim to keep him. He won’t be the Ducks’ only 2022 pick to start the season in the National League. Another left-handed defender, Pavel Mintyukov, tenth overall pick, also earned a position and should even be in the lineup for the opening game. Mintyukov, 54 points in 37 games in his year of eligibility, was No. 1 on at least one NHL team’s list.
In Toronto, center Fraser Minten, the 38th overall pick, 6-foot-2, 192 pounds, convinced the Leafs to keep him after convincing performances in preseason games. Minten had 67 points in 57 games last year in the Western Junior League. Toronto had agreed to move back fourteen places with the Blackhawks if they agreed to welcome goaltender Petr Mrazek and his contract. Chicago drafted defenseman Sam Rinzel 25th overall. The Leafs probably had faith that Minten would still be available later in the second round, unless they were lucky.
Other 2022 picks retained by their National League teams include seventh overall pick, defenseman Kevin Korchinski, drafted with the first of three picks given up by the Senators for Alex DeBrincat, and forward Ivan Miroshnichenko, 20th overall pick by Washington.
Montreal’s Juraj Slafkovsky and Arizona’s third overall pick Logan Cooley are the only two top-6 picks to make the NHL. Defenseman Simon Nemec, the second overall pick, had a strong camp in New Jersey, but he’s a victim of the Devils’ abundance of good defensemen.
The fourth overall pick, Shane Wright, was sent back to the American League recently. “We’re trying to establish a culture here and we’ve said since day one that you have to earn your place,” general manager Ron Francis responded about Wright this summer.
The fifth overall pick by the Philadelphia Flyers, power forward Cutter Gauthier, has chosen to stay one more year at Boston College. Defenseman David Jiricek, the sixth overall pick, was just sent back to the American League by the Blue Jackets, but we should see him back in the NHL soon. He was impressive in the American League as a 19-year-old last year.
We must avoid drawing hasty conclusions, we said earlier, but while the second round choices Minten, Luneau and Poitras break through their respective formations, the end of the first round choice of the Canadian, 26th overall, Filip Mesar, struggling to find a place in the American League, after a lackluster season in the junior ranks.
With the presence of veterans (or young firsts) Emil Heineman, Philippe Maillet, Joshua Roy, Sean Farrell, Brandon Gignac, Lias Andersson, Xavier Simoneau, Mitchell Stephens and Joel Armia (imagine, Gabriel Bourque, 413 career games in the NHL , could end up on the fourth line!), sending Mesar back to the junior ranks would undoubtedly be the best alternative.
At this stage of his development, a first round pick should have at least a minimum impact in the American League this year (in the case of a European) or have dominated offensively in the junior ranks last year. following your selection.
1– Nice portrait of the defensive star of the Montreal Alouettes, Marc-Antoine Dequoy by Nicholas Richard.
2– Will Kelvin Kiptum, just 23 years old, be the first human being to run a marathon in less than two hours? Yves Boisvert asks himself the question today.
3– The Canadian will have the youngest team in the NHL after the Buffalo Sabres. Guillaume Lefrançois analyzes this training, while teaching us that Rhode Island is not an island and that the predominant instrument in the film Piano Man… is not a piano. No more suspense, dive into his text!