The Montreal Canadiens opted for the big Slovak over the consensus number one pick.
After many weeks of speculation of what Kent Hughes would do with the number one pick overall, he decided to draft Juraj Slafkovsky out of Slovakia in a move that shocked people and the fans in attendance at the Bell Centre.
Slafkovsky spent the past season in Finland playing for TPS Turku, where in 31 games, he finished with only five goals and five assists in a season where he missed a lot of time due to injury. He also played at the World Juniors and made the Olympics for Slovakia.
At the World Juniors, he didn’t register a single point in the two games he played but managed to score seven goals in seven games at the Olympics, which helped his stock rise. A native of Kosice, he comes in at 6’4” and 218 pounds, and people are already slating him on a line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.
The Canadiens weren’t done there as they made two separate trades a couple of picks later, trading Alexander Romanov to the New York Islanders for two picks which included the 13th pick overall and the 98th pick, before sending the 13th and the 66th pick to the Chicago Blackhawks for Kirby Dach.
Although losing Romanov seems like a big loss for the future, Hughes stated he wanted a bigger presence down the middle, and Slafkovsky at 6’4”and Dach at 6’4” as well brings that much-needed size.
Dach, who has played 159 games with the Blackhawks, finished with 59 points ( 19 goals, 40 assists) and was drafted third overall back in 2019.
The Canadiens were back on the podium for the 26th overall pick and went with a Slovak Filip Mesar, who played in the Slovakian Hockey League for Poprad and finished the 2021-22 season with eight goals and eight assists in 37 games.
He also played at the World Juniors for Slovakia but only played two games and finished with zero points and Dobber prospects had this scouting report on him.
” A highly skilled, creative winger with a good work rate off the puck. Needs to improve his ability to play through traffic but has the potential to grow into a top-six forward in the NHL”.
The Canadiens will be back on day two of the draft which begins on Friday morning at 11am where Hughes will have ten more picks to make or deal with.
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