Montreal tap Zadina at three

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MONTREAL – What do you get a franchise that has won more Stanley Cups than any other franchise, but hasn’t won the Cup since the 90’s? Well, for one, you give them a ping-pong ball that had the fourth best odds at 9.5 per cent of winning the NHL Draft Lottery, allowed the Montreal Canadiens to move up and select third overall.

The Habs have selected third overall once since 1969 taking Alex Galchenyuk in 2012. The irony here is that the rumors are that Galchenyuk is possibly on the trading block along with some other players on the current roster. Montreal is in dire need of centers and some players like Max Pacioretty and Jonathan Drouin could be part of that movement.

The Habs also have four second round picks that could also be used to nab a center or two. Expect Montreal to be anything but boring at the NHL Draft next month. Carey Price has always been the key for Montreal and with four second round picks it’s a good bet one of them could be taken on a goaltender.

After the Buffalo Sabres take Rasmus Dahlin first overall, the next three picks expected to be taken in the draft are wingers: Andrei Svechnikov, Brady Tkachuk, and Filip Zadina. What the Carolina Hurricanes do with the second overall impacts what the Habs do greatly. PHN predicts that Carolina will take Svechnikov leaving the Habs to pick between Tkachuk and Zadina.

Montreal could go with defense with the pick but “the Big Four” are considered the best players in the draft, and if they decide to go with a defenseman they will have the pick of the litter but we don’t expect to see that happening. Tkachuk is a power forward like his father Keith and Zadina is a pure goal scorer and has a ton of upside to his game.

That said, we expect Montreal to make the between following announcement come draft day.

“With the third overall selection in the 2018 NHL Draft, the Montreal Canadiens select, from the Halifax Mooseheads, Filip Zadina”

Brian Jennings covers the Philadelphia Flyers for prohockeynews.com and can be found on twitter at @Flyersfan22.