For the first time in decades, the Canadian Amateur Recruitment Department is one of the five most productive NHL. This is not a thin feat given the fact that four years ago, CH recruiters still appeared in the 25th row of our annual ranking.
Our performance statement of the recruiters teams reveals that the hopes selected by the Montreal organization during the draft from 2017 to 2024 (inclusive) have so far played 2561 games in the NHL.
This yield places CH recruiters in fifth row in the league behind those of Devils of New Jerseyof the Rangers From New York, Buffalo Sabers and Ottawa Senators.
The reconstruction of the Canadian, it should be emphasized, did not start in 2022 when Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes took control of the organization. This work had been undertaken by Marc Bergevin long before, in the year preceding the 2018 draft. Note that its employees no longer managed to identify and develop a sufficient number of players worthy of the NHLthe ex-director general then started to raise additional selections to allow his recruiters to touch the target more often.
Because we select players aged 18, and sometimes even 17 years old, the success rate of recruiters of the NHL is low. It is generally around 35-37 %. And this is explained by the extreme difficulty of predicting the human and athletic development of an individual of this age over a period of five years. And it’s even more difficult in a late development sport like hockey.
In the NFLanother sport with late development, hopes are selected at the age of 22 or 23. And the success rate of recruiters (that is to say the probability that a hope is playing a full season) is around 80 %.
The increase in the yield of Recruiters of the Montreal organization since 2018 shows how the wheel of the recruitment and development of young Espoirs players runs slowly. And how important it is to be constant in this chapter.
Thus, during our last nine surveys (which all covered a period of eight years), Montreal recruiters ranked as follows:
- 2008-2015: 29E Rang
- 2009-2016: 26e rang
- 2010-2017: 20e rang
- 2011-2018: 20e rang
- 2012-2019: 18e rang
- 2013-2020: 19th rank
- 2014-2021: 25e rang
- 2015-2022: 13E Rang
- 2017-2024: 5e rang
Ironically, 43 % of the Canadiens ‘recruiters’ record (1106 games played by hopes they have chosen) is attributable to players who are no longer part of the organization. Like Jesperi Kotkaniemi (3rd choice in total of 2018), Alexander Romanov (38th in 2018), Jordan Harris (71st in 2018) and Ryan Poehling (25th in 2017).
Recruiters do not control what management decides to do with the players they select.
On the other hand, Cole Caufield, Kaiden Guhle, Juraj Slafkovsky and Lane Hutson, four players obtained in recent years are part of the nucleus of the team.
Lane Hutson, Cole Caufield et Juraj Slafkovsky
Photo : usa today sports via reuters con / Eric Bolte
Winner of the Calder Trophy this season, Hutson was chosen as late as in the 62nd row in the 2022 recovery. This extremely rare feat is both attributable to the flair of tricolor recruiters and their ability to take risks because of the large number of selections they had.
Stronger Ivan Demidov, who arrived in Montreal at the end of the last season, will be grafted to this nucleus next season.
Other hopes, such as defender Jayden Struble and goalkeeper Jakub Dobes, also won positions. And to date, nearly ten other young people claimed during selections from 2021 to 2024, such as Michael Hage (2024), David Reinbacher (2023), Jacob Fowler (2023), Florian Xhekaj (2023), Logan Mailloux (2021) and Oliver Kapanen (2021) training and become regular contributors.
To this loot are added the 16th and 17th selections that the Canadian has for Friday’s draft.
The first round of the draft being the day of the year the most conducive to exchanges, it will be interesting to see if Gorton and Hughes will decide to monetize part to meet specific needs.
Some notes on the teams of recruiters, and on the next draft …
Some recruiters interviewed argue that this year’s draft has little depth in comparison with previous years, in the sense that the middle of the first round will be a little less raised in terms of talent.
However, no less than 11 organizations have already exchanged their first -round choice and will not have to worry about this on Friday evening. On the other hand, 10 teams will have the leisure to select two or more players.
THE Predators from Nashville and Flyers de Philadelphia will select three players each (unless you conclude a transaction) while, in addition to the CH, the FlamesTHE BlackhawksTHE Blue JacketsTHE Sharks And the Penguins will be able to choose two players each.
The Penguins will hold the 11th and 12th selections on Friday. If you take a look at the classification of the recruitment teams of the NHLyou will find that it will not be a luxury.
The DG Kyle Dubas is in front of a real desert when it must initiate an urgent reconstruction.
Since 2017, the hopes selected by the Penguins have played only 277 games in the NHL. It is a real disaster. The last hope chosen by the Penguins who somewhat looked like a regular NHL player was the defender Calen Addison (drafted in 2018) who played 134 games between 2022 and 2024.
To their defense, recruiters of the Penguins exercised only three first -round selections in the last eight drafts.
On average, their first selection row was 39th (therefore in the second round) during this period.
I prefer to have good players in my alignment rather than a bank of choice with well -stocked draft
tastily declared the director general of the Lightning of Tampa Bay, Julien Brisebois, last March.
The fact remains that Lightning, which is always considered an NHL elite team, will make its first selection as late as in the 127th row next weekend.
In addition, Tampa Bay has already sold his choices of the first round of 2026 and 2027. If Brisebois does not acquire any first -round choice by 2027, it will ultimately mean that the Lightning will have chosen only hope in the first round (Isaac Howard, 31st in 2022) over a period of … eight years.
Does Brisebois’ philosophy begin to gain followers within the brotherhood of directors general? As mentioned above, 11 general directors, an abnormally high number, do not have a first -round choice this year.
The next few years will say if it was the beginning of a trend or if these withdrawals were only punctual.
