2014 NHL Draft: Montreal Canadiens Draft Review
By Jared Book
The Montreal Canadiens made five selections in the second day of the 2014 NHL Draft in Philadelphia.
The Canadiens had six picks, but used their fourth round pick to move up in the third round and select Brett Lernout.
Here is a look of the Montreal Canadiens draft selections in Day 2.
3-13 (73) MTLBRETT LERNOUT DCAN6′ 4″206WHLSWIFT CURRENT
Lernout was listed by ISS (83) and HockeyProspect (129) but the Canadiens moved up to get him so much of really seen something they liked. His strengths are his size, boxes people out in front of the net and finishes his hits, according to ISS. His weaknesses are his footspeed and decision making with the puck.
However, if you feel the Canadiens just drafted Douglas Murray, there are some positives. HockeyProspect says that he is an impressive skater for his size even though they were lower on him than ISS. Here is a quote from one of their scouts:
"“Brett showed good improvement through the course of the season. A toolsy player with great size, strength, and skating abilities. He’s still raw, but if given time to develop, he should become the type of physical defenseman that teams love to have and hate to play against.”"
He is also a right-handed shot which is an asset for this system right now.
5-5 (125) MTL NIKOLAS KOBERSTEIN DCAN6′ 1″180AJHLOLDS
Koberstein is somewhat of a mystery. He isn’t listed in HockeyProspect, ISS or McKeen’s. Even the awesome Habs Eyes On The Prize were stumped.
He is from Alberta and played in their Junior league. It will be interesting to see his progress.
5-27(147) MTLDANIEL AUDETTE CUSA5′ 8″175QMJHLSHERBROOKE
I love, love, love this pick. If the name sounds familiar, his father is Donald Audette, the former Canadien and current Canadiens scout. He spent day two with his son and had no advance notice he was going to be picked in what was surely a special family moment.
Audette is very skilled. He was the No. 1 pick in the QMJHL draft and put up impressive scoring numbers. My friends at Yahoo Sports, Neate Sager and Rob Pettapiece put together a ranking of top players based on scoring adjusted for age and competition level. Audette ranked very well among his peers and in the fifth round is a steal.
Audette was ranked as high as 38th overall by Corey Pronman.
I would be amiss if I didn’t mention that Audette was selected with the same selection as another smaller scorer in junior… Brendan Gallagher.
6-27(177) MTLHAYDEN HAWKEY GUSA6′ 1″180USHLOMAHA
Hawkey was not ranked in any guides, but was listed in the HockeyProspect Black Book. He was the USHL Goaltender of the Year and led the USHL in goals against average and save percentage.
He is a player with a lot of athletic ability and I feel is totally worth a flyer. HockeyProspect saw him make a bunch of breakaway stops and it will be interesting to see how he develops.
In his two USHL seasons, he had a GAA under 2.00 and a save percentage over .925. Not bad numbers to repeat two years in a row.
Here is a bit from HockeyProspect.
"His lateral, post-to-post ability is phenomenal, and is a major reason why he is so effective on breakaway and odd-man breaks. He made saves going post to post this season that were seemingly impossible to stop, but he stopped them."
7-27(207) MTLJAKE EVANS C/RWCAN6′ 0″172OJHLST. MICHAELS
Evans was ranked by both ISS (158) and HockeyProspect (139) in the Top-160 which makes him a mild steal four picks from the end of the Draft.
Size is not an issue for him, being at 6’0. It’s not like he’s small of stature like Audette, as an example. He gets good marks for his hockey sense, puck handling and playmaking by ISS but his negatives from them were consistency and compete level saying that he has scouts scratching their head wanting more.
He also seems like a player worth a flyer. If the first two picks of the day were somewhat… strange, you can definitely see the Canadiens taking some home run swings with the rest of their selections.