Ticket | A look back at the 2017 draft

Casually, with two more points Thursday night, Nick Suzuki has risen to the top of the scorers of the 2017 vintage since the start of the season with 14 points in 15 games.

Mathias Brunet
Press

With 13 points in his last 9 games, the 22-year-old is also just one point behind Robert Thomas and fifth in his group for career points. Thomas, of the St. Louis Blues, nevertheless played 39 more games.

If the 2017 draft had to be redone, Suzuki would not be drafted at 13^e rank, but without a shadow of a doubt among the top five.

We are obviously relying on current performance, because things still have time to change in the coming years.

There would be a debate for the first overall pick between defensemen Miro Heiskanen of the Dallas Stars and Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche. The second is perhaps more offensive, but the first more complete.

At the time, however, we did not see them in the top two. A specialized site in New Jersey (the Devils held the first choice in total), recorded the simulated draft of a majority of experts. Despite his injuries in his year of eligibility, center Nolan Patrick was number one on 14 lists and Nico Hischier was to be the first choice according to 12 specialists. Only one, “Recruits”, by Grant McCagg, former recruiter of the Canadian, had dared to place Heiskanen in the lead. The repechage specialist, Simon “Snake” Boisvert, who never shies off the beaten track, had Makar in the front row.

Hischier, with an 86-point season in just 57 games in Halifax for André Tourigny, entered the NHL at 18. After a productive first year, 52 points in 82 games, he has been hit hard by injury for the past three seasons. It remains a center of quality.

Nolan Patrick was also often injured. He’s never had more than 31 points in a season and the Flyers traded him this summer in a three-club trade that saw them secure defenseman Ryan Ellis and saw the sixth pick in total pass. that same vintage, Cody Glass, at the Nashville Predators.

After Heiskanen and Makar, we would evoke the names of Pettersson, Suzuki, Drake Batherson, Robert Thomas, Jason Robertson, Josh Norris.

Not so long ago, Maxime Comtois, Martin Necas and Kailer Yamamoto would have been part of the discussions, but production is on the decline now. Comtois, a second-round pick, the Ducks’ top scorer last year at the left wing of the first line, has an assist in thirteen games and was demoted to the third line.

Necas produced at Suzuki’s pace last year, he is slightly behind this season, but he still has time to recover. Yamamoto had almost a point per game in his debut season two years ago, but his production has been sluggish since.

We could do the exercise again in a year and get different results.

The Canadian is not doing too badly. By trading Max Pacioretty to the Golden Knights, he inherited one of the best players of the vintage.

The CH did not draft before the 25^e rank. At this rank, the success rate is around 25%. Ryan Poehling had a rocky start to his career, but he hasn’t said his last word. He was playing his first game of the season on Thursday and Dominique Ducharme intends to give him every chance to establish himself in the NHL. The four players drafted in front of him, Filip Chytil, Kailer Yamamoto, Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Kristian Vesalainen are still trying to make an impact in the National League, as are the next six, Jake Oettinger, Morgan Frost, Shane Bowers, Henri Jokiharju, Eeli Tolvanen and Klim Kostin. Only Jokiharju has played 100 games in the NHL.

Among Montreal’s other picks, defenseman Josh Brook was progressing quietly, but an injury keeps him out long term this season and it will be steep to climb.

Another second-round pick like Brook, Finland’s Joni Ikonen, has been repeatedly injured for three years. He no longer belongs to the Canadiens, but he is having his best season at 22 with 12 points in 19 games at Ilves.

After those picks in the first two rounds Scott Walford and Jarret Tyszka were left out by the club and they are now both in college, Cale Fleury was lost in the enlargement draft and n failed to break through the Seattle team.

Drafted in the seventh round thanks to a last-minute pick by the Philadelphia Flyers, Cayden Primeau is still considered the goalkeeper of the future in Montreal. The 22-year-old is off to a strong start to the season at Laval with a 4-3 record, an average of 2.18 and a save rate of .921. He is the only goaltender drafted in 2017 to have played at least five National League games with Oettinger of the Dallas Stars (back in the American League) and Jeremy Swayman of the Boston Bruins.

The verdict of the 2017 draft cannot be delivered for a few more years.

The feat of the day

2013 Canadiens second-round pick Zachary Fucale waited seven years for that first chance. He played more often in the ECHL than the American League. Then Thursday, in his first career game in the National Hockey League, this Quebec goalie shut out the Detroit Red Wings 2-0. What an extraordinary example of perseverance.

Quote of the day

The number of the day

11

Arriving in Anaheim with fanfare in 2017, after amassing 48 points in 39 games at the University of Denver, Troy Terry did not live up to expectations in his first four years in the Ducks organization. It seems to finally unlock this year. By scoring twice on Thursday, he reached the 11-goal mark in just 14 games. Terry is one less than Leon Draisaitl and as many as Alex Ovechkin!