Draft: the Habs could defer one of their two 1st-round picks until next year

Published on: June 9, 2025

The NHL Entry Draft is just under three weeks away. The Habs currently hold the 16th and 17th picks in the first round, a change from recent years.

For those interested, colleague Tony Patoine has published his top-10 list of the best prospects in the upcoming draft.

Tony Patoine’s top-10 that the Habs would love to get their hands on… Bear and Mrtka are in it → https://t.co/ENWSabNroH

– DansLesCoulisses (@DLCoulisses) June 8, 2025

For a long time, it looked like the Habs weren’t going to keep these two picks. We could see the club moving up in the draft or using those picks to close a deal for a center… but those options seem less and less realistic the more time passes.

For both high picks and big center players, demand is high… and there are few (if any) available.

So, right now, we’re wondering if the Habs will be stuck with these two picks… but in the latest The Basu & Godin Notebook, Marc Antoine Godin wondered if the Canadiens might try to trade one of them for a first-round pick next year.

And that’s a really interesting idea.

The problem with the current crop is that, after the first group of players (which, depending on the team, consists of around 7-8 players), the quality seriously diminishes. There are some good players after that, but nowhere near the quality of the top prospects.

In other words, the crop doesn’t have a ton of depth… and it definitely has less than last year.

So the 16th pick, for example, doesn’t have a ton of value… but the Habs could still try to get by in other ways. If, in the 16th spot, a team calls because it likes a player who falls, the Habs could trade that pick for a first-round pick next year… which would give them a second first-round pick next year.

The one they’d get in a trade would almost certainly be top-10 or even top-15 protected (a team won’t risk giving away such a high pick for the 16th pick of a shallow draft), but for the Habs, it’s still of interest.

If, for example, next year’s draft turns out to be deeper, perhaps a mid/late first-round pick in 2026 would be more valuable than the 16th pick in 2025. And maybe next year there’s a second center suddenly available that the Habs will love.

Having two first-round picks to do that next year would make the job easier.

Of course, all this is far from a guarantee. Maybe there will be even fewer center players available in a year’s time, and the draft will be even shallower… but as long as you’re going to take an ordinary prospect at No. 16 (who won’t be the same age as the rest of the core), you might as well take the chance to put it off until later, so you’ll have more bargaining chips a year from now.

Of course, a team still has to fall in love with a 16th-ranked player and be willing to give up a future first-round pick to get him… but if that happens, maybe it’s something the Habs should consider, because that’s probably how they’ll maximize the value of those picks.

Overtime

– Great read.

When intensity rhymes with quality

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