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HF Habs: What are your initial impressions of the Habs 2023 Draft class?

Overall INITIAL grade?

  • Total voters
    457
5th overall - David Reinbacher, D
My grade: B
My pick: Matvei Michkov

Reinbacher is almost too safe. I like him, he's got upside, but it's a little underwhelming, especially in a much-lauded draft where forwards are getting all the praise. I would have rolled the dice on Michkov.


-- Alex Newhook trade --

I'm... whelmed, I guess. He's stagnated in Colorado.. albeit they're a contending team, but they were still weak at forward throughout the year due to injuries and he didn't really breakthrough. That's concerning. He was definitely rushed. Maybe he can re-tool in Montreal.


69th overall - Jacob Fowler, G
My Grade: A
My pick: Jacob Fowler

Love this pick. He was dominant last year. Hope he can keep it up.


101st overall - Florian Xhekaj, LW
My grade: F
My pick: Aram Minnetian

Xhekaj would have gotten an A in the 7th round, but he was taken way too early. Would have went with Minnetian in order to score up their RHD.


110th overall - Bogdan Konyushkov, D
My grade: C-
My pick: Matthew Mania

Other than stat watching, I don't know too much about Konyushkov, so the C- may be a little unfair. Does he even come over? Would have went with Mania, who is another point-producing defenseman, who could have upside if he puts it all together.


128th overall - Quentin Miller, G
My grade: C
My pick: Connor Levis

Again, it's a whatever pick. I'm not sure if I would have went with another goalie here with certain talent left. I would have grabbed Levis here, who ultimately fell to the 7th round. He could have added size upfront, at minimum.


133rd overall - Sam Harris, LW
My grade: D
My pick: Aiden Fink

Harris is an overager and put up a decent performance at the WJAC. I'm not sure if he has NHL upside. In fact, I would have preferred Fink and his goal scoring, even if he's undersized.


144th overall - Yevgeni Volokhin, G
My grade: C
My pick: Ruslan Khazheyev

If they were going with an oversea Russian goalie, I would have much preferred Khazheyev. I feel like he has more upside, but Volokhin's definitely underrated. But then again, it's goalie, so who the hell really knows? Moving on...


165th overall - Filip Eriksson, C
My grade: D
My pick: Dominik Petr

I wasn't sure if Eriksson would be drafted. I thought he would get passed over due to injuries. Ironically, I would have went with Petr, who also fought injuries this year. I think he has more potential, but we'll see.


197th overall - Luke Mittelstadt, D
My grade: B-
My pick: Emil Jarventie

Totally fine with the Mittelstadt pick. It's a 7th rounder and he had a good showing at the WJC. Personally, I would have taken a chance on Emil Jarventie and his scoring skill.


Overall, I'd give the draft a C-, mainly because some of the picks are absolute headscratchers.
 
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nyhabsfan said:
If you haven't read Arpon Basu's article on Reinbacher you are missing out on a very good in-depth piece. I felt a lot better about the pick and the amount of diligence that the Habs put into the pick.

I would have tried to trade down to Philly for #7 and #22, but I have a feeling they KNEW Michov was falling to them.

I'll go out on a limb and say that Reinbacher will be a better pro than Michov for the following reasons.

1. Word is that Michov met TWICE with the Flyers and in his press conference said "This is the team I wanted to go too", so sounds like a pre-madonna already. Even Arizona who could afford the risk to take him passed. So did his agent tell other teams "don't bother"?
2. His play with the puck maybe elite but his overall 200ft game may never develop any further playing in the KHL without any input from the Flyers.
3. Still a question of his "attitiude" and character as a team player.

I could be wrong and I totally get we haven't had a superstar in 30 years, but I don't think he's going to be as good as all the hype suggests.

Drafting three goalies is a head scratcher!

Hard to be too critical when their are a dozen full time scouts who do this for a living, but I can understand the frustration when we went through a terrible season and the reward seems very underwhelming.
Click to expand...

I think it is more because they knew that Arizona would be Reinbacher at 6 and trading down would mean losing on the guy they realy wanted
 
I really like the goalie we got in the third round and Reinbacher was my plan B if the Michkov/Smith situation played out the way it did so I’m satisfied. It wasn’t a great draft because we only had 2 picks in the first 3 rounds but they did their job. I remember people acting like 2018 was a great draft and praising our management team and the only thing to come to fruition was Romonov because he turned into Dach so I’ll wait on passing judgement.
 
Its kind of a meh draft for me. Nothing exciting really.

Reinbacher could be a score but right now he doesn't get me pumped for next year.

Besides Fowler and Miller, hadn't heard of anyone we drafted.
 
DiglettDangles said:
Disagree - kids are growing into their role, finally losing some dead weight,and we can't possibly have as many injuries to key players like Guhle, Dach and Caufield.
I'm expecting to pick 8-14 next year.
Feel free to bookmark but that's my opinion as of today.
Click to expand...

That's cool, but look at the rest of the conference:

Toronto - core 4 + Rielly, sufficient depth
Tampa - Still have their contending core
Florida - Cup finalists with cap relief
Boston - Big question mark, but lots of elite talent
Ottawa - Rebuild turning the core and incentive to improve
Buffalo - Ready to turn the corner with prospects and young NHLers
Detroit - Further along in the rebuild, have cap space to burn

Carolina - One of the best teams in the NHL, ready to push their chips in.
Devils - Already a force which has gotten much better already
Rangers - veteran core with developing young talent
Penguins & Washington have veteran elite talent and will be pushing to compete for as long as possible.
Columbus - Adding Fantilli, Severson and Provorov plus not missing Werenski for a whole season will do a lot help the team.

Flyers may be the only team in the east who can have a worse roster than Montreal. I'd say you're massively overrating Dach and Guhle's play last season if you think them getting healthy is going to do much.
 
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So, who's the hidden gem we missed on for Newhook? Not a shot at anyone, just curious if anyone has predictions on the matter.
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Newhook trade I’ll give a B+. Fan of the player and worth the price.

Reinbacher I’ll give a C+. Not what I would have done but I get it.
 
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The Newhook trade reminded me when we traded Eller for 2 2nd pick... we had 2 picks early 2nd rd and Bergevin traded them both for Andrew Shaw. The Newhook trade was the same punch in the gut.
 
Voted B... would've gone A- is that was an option.

the profiles on a lot of the later picks are quite positive and suggest good late round fishing for NHL potential.

This draft will be decided by Bach though... if he cements himself as the best D from the draft class and at the least becomes a top-4 fixture, it's a good draft, but if Michkov becomes that generational NHL talent he seems to have the potential to be, anything short of stud top-pairing outcome from Bach, or one of the later picks turning into a Brayden Point/Hellebuyck late round elite surprise, and this draft will sit as a big X on Hughes resume.
 
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