The Montreal Canadiens’ front office delivered a jaw-dropping performance at this year’s NHL Draft, leaving fans and experts buzzing with excitement and admiration. With Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton at the helm, the team not only pulled off a blockbuster trade for elite defenseman Noah Dobson but also managed to secure a group of highly promising young players through shrewd draft maneuvering.

What truly set the weekend apart, however, was the Canadiens’ ability to reclaim a first-round talent in Alexander Zharovsky, despite having traded away their original picks. This strategic brilliance has sparked widespread praise and renewed optimism in Montreal, as the organization’s vision and execution continue to impress the entire hockey world.

Photo credit: Canadiens

The experts all seem to agree that the Montreal Canadiens had an absolutely exceptional draft weekend.

Not only did the team acquire elite defenseman Noah Dobson, but Kent Hughes and his staff also appear to have selected several solid young players.

Hughes may have even strengthened the Dobson trade.

Let me explain..

We mentioned this a bit earlier, but we wanted to dive a little deeper into the thought process.

In an interview, the excellent Martin Lapointe (of the Montreal Canadiens) revealed that the player the Habs selected at 34th overall – thanks to a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes – would have been their original first-round pick!

“Martin Lapointe said the Canadiens had Alexander Zharovsky slotted in the first round where they were originally slated to pick (16-17), so trading up to get him at 34 became an easy decision to make despite the high cost.”

– Arpon Basu

So we can indeed draw the following conclusion:

The Canadiens technically recovered one of their first-round picks that was traded in the Noah Dobson deal

The math is simple.

The Canadiens traded the 16th and 17th overall picks (plus Emil Heineman) to the New York Islanders in exchange for Dobson.

The Canadiens would have selected Alexander Zharovsky with the 16th overall pick – and they still ended up selecting him.

Kent Hughes essentially found a way to get back the forward they were going to draft with their first-round pick, making the Noah Dobson trade even more interesting! Wow!

Nick Bobrov also weighed in on the subject.

“Nick Bobrov on the Habs drafting winger Alexander Zharovsky in the 2nd round:

“The mandate was to find a top 6 talent. Usually top 6 talent disappears pretty quickly after a certain point in the draft. It’s pretty rare when you find them a little bit later and there are circumstances that surround those drops.

In this case, we had Alexander in the 1st round..”

– Via HabsOnReddit

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