The Hockey News’ Mark Seidel rates the 2008 NHL draft for the Southeast and Northeast division teams. He doesn’t think very highly of the Montreal Canadiens draft selections as you’ll read below:
C+, Montreal Canadiens – Although the Canadiens secured the tallest player in the draft with the selection of 6-foot-8 goaltender Jason Missiaen, the theme for Montreal’s weekend was small players. Their first pick – 56th overall – was U.S. NDTP scorer Danny Kristo who stands 5-foot-11, but plays like he’s 6-foot-5 and at NACS, we love his willingness to compete. Kristo has good offensive skills and has shown flashes of being a natural goal-scorer. He still has time to develop these attributes as he is headed to the hockey factory in North Dakota to play for the Fighting Sioux, so don’t expect to see him in the NHL for a few years. In the third round, the Habs went out on a bit of a limb by taking previously passed-over right winger Steve Quailer from the Sioux City Musketeers of the USHL. After that, the Habs took the aforementioned Missiaen who hasn’t become the stud that many, including us, predicted he would be after joining the Peterborough Petes. Like many big kids, though, his size is an asset and it’ll take a while for his coordination to catch up to his frame. Missiaen has all the tools to become a good goaltender down the road. The Habs finished off the draft by taking a couple more smallish forwards who have overachieved in their careers so far: Maxim Trunev and Patrick Johnson. It will be a stretch to see either play at the NHL level and we at NACS feel their highest upside is a career in the American League.
This guy sounds like a hack. His assessments are way off. Danny Kristo is about average sized among forwards taken in the draft. Steve Quailer is bigger than average. Missiaen is obviously a long term project, and he is on the same team as Trevor Cann, who is one of the more highly regarded goaltenders in junior hockey. Cann was a second round draft pick, is a year older, and a regular on Team Canada. As it was Jason had better numbers in the 20 odd games he played for the Petes than Trevor.
How exactly did Trunev and Johnson “overachieve” last season?
Maxim was one of the youngest players eligible for the draft, scored as many points as Nikita Filatov in the Russian 3 League, and is on the Russian Under 20 team for an upcoming tournament. Patrick Johnson was bypassed a year ago, had a good freshman season at Wisconsin, and was taken in the seventh round. Statistically the chances of late round picks making it to the NHL are not great, but I think that Trunev in particular has as good a chance as any player they drafted this past summer.
Rob,
Mark Seidel is the chief scout for North American Central Scouting service so he’s no “hack” but with that being said, I agree that he is selling Maxim Trunev and Danny Kristo short on their talent.
Both players have room to improve even further and haven’t hit their “potential” ceiling yet. I also think Steve Quailer will surprise a few people as he progresses through the USHL and NCAA over the next 2-4 years. I’m not sure he has as much potential as Pacioretty but their games/skill sets are similar after watching both of them at the Habs development camp……..don’t you just love talking about and watching the Canadiens prospects make progression in their dreams to make the NHL.
You or I could make up an official sounding name and designate ourselves “Cheif Scout”, as far as that is concerned. I don’t think this guy is affiliated with NHL Central Scouting, I think he is just riding the name.
Kind of a poor man’s Ky7le Woodleif, who has been the main “scouting” scam operating up to this point.
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