The best prospect drafted in 2022 has just been identified and it is not Slafkovsky or Shane Wright
When the Habs made Juraj Slafkovsky the first overall pick in the NHL draft last July, everyone in the hockey world agreed that the organization had just picked up a great hockey player in the making.
As we know, the 2022 draft was not considered exceptional and under the circumstances, Kent Hughes had chosen the best player available at that time.
However, a few months later, the Slovak forward may very well no longer be seen by some experts as a future NHL star and as Marco Normandin of Habslumentfan.com reports, the Habs may perhaps regret selecting Slafkovsky at the very top of the draft.
La Presse reporter Alexandre Pratt took a look at the subject with a tried-and-true model from Byron Bader of Hockey Prospecting.
This site rates the odds of an NHL prospect ever becoming a superstar, and let's just say the Canadiens' No. 20 doesn't score very well. Here are the rankings of the top seven players selected in the last draft.
1. Juraj Slafkovsky (Canadiens) - 5%.
2. Simon Nemec (Devils) - 49
3. Logan Cooley (Coyotes) - 78%.
4. Shane Wright (Kraken) - 56%.
5. Cutter Gauthier (Flyers) - 26%.
6. David Jiricek (Blue Jackets) - 30
7. Kevin Korchinski (Blackhawks) - 77%.
Only 5% for Slafkovsky. Unbelievable!
We can see here that young Logan Cooley has the best score, followed closely by the Chicago Blackhawks' prospect, the defenseman we saw with the Canadian team at the last World Junior.
However, the rest of the Canadiens' prospects, who were drafted in 2022, get much better grades than Slafkovsky. A big surprise.
The Habs' second first round pick, Filip Mesar, is at 25%, but it's Lane Hutson's grade that will make the team's fans feel good as he is at 72%!
Wow!
As for Owen Beck, who played his first NHL game last Saturday against the Senators, he is rated the same as Slafkovsky at 5%.
But be careful, this is just a ranking of a draft expert's predictions and it doesn't mean that the Canadiens' forward won't have a great career in the NHL, far from it.
We remind you that he is only 18 years old and it is often after four or five years that we can really analyze a draft of a selected year, so we will have to be patient before knowing if the Habs will have bet on the right player at the very first rank.
| POLL | ||
FEVRIER 4 | 149 ANSWERS The best prospect drafted in 2022 has just been identified and it is not Slafkovsky or Shane Wright Which of these CH prospects do you think will have the best career? | ||
| Owen Beck | 32 | 21.5 % |
| Filip Mesar | 19 | 12.8 % |
| Lane Hutson | 50 | 33.6 % |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | 48 | 32.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
