It gets a little confusing on these boards with all the complaining and blaming that appears to stick to mostly Timmins and Bergevin. While Timmins was the head of scouting his role would have been to find the players management was looking for in order to meet the needs of the team. As assistant GM he may take on the development responsibilites but that has not always been true. I think at least 60 to 70% of development should be on the 18 year old player and there in lies the problem with a draft. . Players can be given all the information they need to develop but they in the end must use it an some do a better job at it than others. Since Bergevin's arrival in 2012 the Canadians have drafted 68 players with the 2012, 2014 and 2015 draft likely our worst.
In 2012 Bozon, Galchenyuk, and Hudon 3 out of 7 players had the best chance an unfortunately for Bozon he developed menningitis and that was it for hockey . While we picked Galchenyuk (trade to Arizona of Domi) the Oilers did take Yakupov first overall and at least our pick has turned into a functional Josh Anderson so definitely not the bust some would want to believe, and as for Hudon he had a decent run with the team.
Our 2013 draft did see McCarron bust but De La Rose (St. Louis Blues), Fucale, Lehkonen, Andrighetto, Reway all had big upside and if not for a heart condition Reway might have been a nice surprise that year. Out of 8 picks most are still playing hockey and Lehkonen has worked out just fine developing into a strong to way player.
Ironically our worst draft is 2014 and yet a gem in Jake Evans was one of the 6 picks we had that year.
2015 Juuslen (2 pucks to the face an concussions) and Vejdemo out of 5 picks made us about 40% correct in picking NHL calibre players
Our 2016 drafts and beyond appear to be our best with Sergachev (turned into Drouin), Mete, Pezzetta 3 out of 6 are still in the NHL or our organization.
2017 Poehling Brook Ikonen who has struggled with injuries, our future goalie Primeau and so roughly for out of 7 showing NHL calibre potential followed by a change in tactics .
In 2017 Bergevin began to attack the draft by collecting additional picks Kotkoniemi (Dvorak and a 3rd) Ylonen, Romanov, and Hillis to name 4 of the 11 picks appear to have excellent potential. and of course in 2019 Caufield Struble Norlinder our top 3 out of 11 draft gets even better. As far as 2020 Guhle, Tuch, Mysak were selected out of 8 picks and the 2021 draft with Mailloux, Kidney, and Kapanen amongst the 9 selections things look good.
So out of 59 picks between 2012 and 2020 the Habs have produced 14 players currently playing regularly and one potential franchise goalie in Primeau. We appear to have at least 10 more potential prospects with another four or five having excellent potential.
Since 2012 when Bergevin cam on board we are now one of 14 teams to play in the cup finals. Teams who have not made it that far are Colorado with Mackinon drafted in 2013, Florida with Barkov and Ekblad, the Oilers with Draisaitl and McDavid, Sabres Eichel and others, the Leafs with Mathews (did I mention the Leafs) etc. While I think there is always room for improvement we have made the playoffs 9 of his 12 years and been to the final once. In the salary cap era this appears to be not bad. In Fact better than at least 17 other teams wo have not been to the cup. We need to keep moving in this direction
