An expert decides to redo the Cole Caufield draft and the result is striking
With the departure of Ryan Poehling to Pittsburgh, Cole Caufield is now the oldest Habs first round pick still with the team.
Cole was selected 15th overall in the 2019 draft and let's just say that the young American is likely to stay with the Habs for quite some time, as he recorded 43 points, including 23 goals in 67 games during the 2021-2022 season.
As Samuel Doiron of Habsolumentfan.com reports, it's interesting that just three years later, some selections from the 2019 draft are now established NHL players, while others are slow to make their mark.
Speaking of which, the Scrimmage Hockey site had some fun redoing the first round of the 2019 draft and let's just say that this new ranking is to the Habs forward's advantage.
J. Hughes, who had been the first choice of the New Jersey Devils, is still at the top of this new list, but as for Kaapo Kakko, chosen second by the New York Rangers, has dropped to tenth position.
It is now the 2022 Calder Trophy winner, a certain Moritz Seider, who is ranked second, followed by Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks. It is worth noting that it was the Canadiens' newcomer, Kirby Dach, who was originally selected third overall.
Cole Caufield is fourth, jumping an impressive eleven spots in the new rankings, but it's a safe bet that he could have threatened Zegras had he had a better first half of the season. Note that defenseman Bowen Byram was selected fourth overall by the Colorado Avalanche.
The top 5 ends with Minnesota Wild forward Matthew Boldy, who was originally selected 12th overall.
As for the Canadiens' new acquisition, Kirby Dach, he fell all the way to ninth, despite being the third highest scorer in the 2019 draft.
While it's still early to evaluate this draft, it's very interesting to see that Caufield's selection at #15, which many pundits said at the time was a real steal, could become a very nice legacy of the Trevor Timmins era and that the team's new management has a real gem in the organization.
You can check out the revisited 2019 first round by clicking on the link below.
| POLL | ||
Who would you have picked first? | ||
| Hughes | 102 | 23.4 % |
| Seider | 98 | 22.5 % |
| Zegras | 85 | 19.5 % |
| Caufield | 151 | 34.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
