When it comes to the NHL draft, you never know what you’re going to get (kind of like a box of chocolates). Most general managers have the opportunity to draft a great deal of players, but don’t necessarily get to see the results, because their time with the team often expires before they come to fruition.
Bob Gainey was the general manager of the Montreal Canadiens from May 2003 until February 2010, when he stepped down for Pierre Gauthier and became a consultant to him, and as we all know, he stepped down from that job after the disastrous 2011-2012 season. In this article, we will look back at the eight years where Bob Gainey drafted players, and retrospectively examine how well he did.
To start off, we look to the 2003 draft, arguably one of the best drafts in NHL history, featuring many of today’s top stars, including Jeff Carter, Brent Seabrook, Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlaf, Mike Richards, and Corey Perry. Any one of those players could have been picked by the Canadiens, but Montreal notoriously picked Andrei Kostitsyn over all of them, and it still annoys us to this day. Aside from that glaringly obvious blunder, the Canadiens drafted eleven players that year, including Maxim Lapierre, Ryan O’Byrne, and Jaroslav Halak. Of the eleven players drafted, six have played in the NHL. Fun fact: three players from the Montreal Rocket were drafted that year.
The 2004 draft, also known as the Ovechkin–Malkin draft, saw the Habs draft nine players overall, six of which played in the NHL, most notably Kyle Chipchura, Alexei Emelin, Mikhail Grabovski, and Mark Streit. Emelin is the only player from that draft that still remains a Montreal Canadien.
The 2005 draft was the Sydney Crosby lottery year, where the Montreal Canadiens got the fifth pick and chose goaltender Carey Price. Additionally, Gainey and company picked 6 six other players, most notably Guillaume Latendresse, Matt D’Agostini, and Andrei’s brother, Sergei Kostitsyn. Price has become a perennial All-Star and top goalie in the NHL. As for the other three, they played some seasons with the Canadiens, but would all ultimately get traded out of town.
The 2006 draft is not an impressive draft year for the Habs, they only had six picks that season, three of which ended up playing in the NHL (Ben Maxwell, Mathieu Carle, and Ryan White), but none remain with Montreal. A point of interest in the 2006 draft year is the fact that the Canadiens first round pick, David Fischer, was picked two spots before Claude Giroux, and Ben Maxwell was picked right before Milan Lucic. We cannot, with complete certainty, predict to what degree players will flourish in the NHL, but it’s always interesting to look back and see who could have been wearing the CH.
The 2007 draft has become a very successful one for the Habs, who had nine picks, and although only four players have played in the NHL, all four of them are still active, and two of them are very important players for the Canadiens. Those four players are none other than Yannick Weber, Ryan McDonagh (yes, the guy in the Gomez deal), Max Pacioretty, and P.K. Subban. Despite the fact that McDonagh was part of a terrible trade, we have seen P.K. and Patches thrive in Montreal.
The 2008 draft was a terrible for the Canadiens, who only had five picks, and none of them have played a single game in the NHL. Their top pick was in the second round, and they chose Danny Kristo, who had an issue with frost bite during his time in university. The Canadiens did have a first round pick that season, but they traded it to Calgary for Alex Tanguay, who only wound up playing one season with the team. Had the Canadiens kept the pick, the only notable player they could have picked was Tyler Ennis.
The 2009 draft was just as unimpressive. This time, the Habs had eight picks, three of whom have played at least one game in the NHL: Joonas Nattinen, Gabriel Dumont, and Louis Leblanc. The team also drafted a defenseman by the name of Mac Bennett, who is still in the Canadiens system. The biggest problem with this draft was it was held in Montreal, and Gainey was seemingly pressured into picking Louis Leblanc, a hometown kid from the West Island. A few notable players the Canadiens could have picked in his place include Chris Kreider, Marcus Johansson, Tomas Tatar, Kyle Clifford, and Ryan O’Reilly.
Although Gainey would step down in 2010, two picks would be chosen by Pierre Gauthier with Ganey advising him, those being Jarred Tinordi and Brendan Gallagher.
When reviewing his draft record, the least successful draft in the Gainey era was 2008, followed by a tie between 2006 and 2009, with only one player in the NHL, Gabriel Dumont, who is still bounced between the NHL and AHL. From 2003-2005, many players drafted made it to the NHL, and some are impacting the Habs today (Price and Emelin), but the best year drafted by Bob Gainey has to be 2007, followed by 2005, as thanks to those two, the Habs have acquired three fantastic young players, Pacioretty, Subban, and Price, who are key elements to the team.
Every GM will have their good years and bad years, but unless a Stanley Cup is won, or there are a lot of deep runs, most fans will focus on the bad times. Bob Gainey will always be a legendary Montreal Canadiens player, but as a GM, many fans consider his tenure as a negative time for the franchise. However, if not for Mr. Gainey and Co., some of the players making the biggest impact in Montreal today may have been picked by someone else.
What do you think was the best and worst draft year with Gainey, or other GMs throughout the league? Let us know in the comments section below.
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