Cowan: A couple of players the Canadiens might focus on at NHL Draft

Montreal Gazette

3 days ago

Montreal Canadiens
By
There are always an excess of mock drafts ahead of the NHL Draft, which will be held Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles.
But the one I always look forward to and focus on is Bob McKenzie's final draft rankings for TSN. McKenzie is semi-retired now, working only on the world junior championship and the NHL Draft for TSN. He became the first hockey writer to really focus on the NHL Draft back in 1985 when he was with The Hockey News and published his first NHL Draft Special.
'There was quite literally zero NHL draft coverage by the National Hockey League media,' McKenzie said on TSN after his final rankings came out on Monday with defenceman Matthew Schaefer of the OHL's Erie Otters ranked No. 1. 'Junior hockey writers used to talk about the draft a little bit — nobody in the NHL talked about the draft. It was a very easy void to fill.'
McKenzie puts together his rankings after surveying 10 NHL scouts. Last year he had Russian forward Ivan Demidov ranked second behind Macklin Celebrini, who went to the San Jose Sharks with the No. 1 pick. The Canadiens were thrilled Demidov was still available when they picked fifth. McKenzie had centre Michael Hage ranked 21st and the Canadiens took him with the 21st pick.
The Canadiens hold two first-round picks again this year — No. 16 and No. 17 — as the NHL switches to a decentralized draft like the NFL and NBA. That means team executives, coaches and scouts will remain in their home cities with commissioner Gary Bettman announcing the first-round picks from the stage Friday at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports).
Fifteen of the players McKenzie had ranked in his top 17 last year were taken with the first 17 picks. This year he has Justin Carbonneau, a right-winger with the QMJHL's Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, ranked 16th and Jack Nesbitt, a centre with the OHL's Windsor Spitfires, ranked 17th.
The 6-foot-1, 191-pound Carbonneau had 46-43-89 totals in 62 games this past season.
'Excellent skater who will drive inside and attack at defenders to break them down,' Craig Button, TSN's Director of Scouting, said about Carbonneau. 'Has very good hands and can shoot off the fly with an accurate, heavy shot. Plays with determination and may be just scratching the surface with his attributes.'
The 6-foot-4, 185-pound Nesbitt had 25-39-64 totals in 65 games.
'Rangy centre who plays hard and can lean in physically and impose himself,' Button said. 'Offensive skills are solid, and with physical maturity his game can blossom. Has a streak of nastiness and will get involved in the hard areas of the game and not back down.'
It will be interesting to see what the Canadiens do if they don't trade away their first-round picks and those two players are still available when they make their choices.
The last two times the Canadiens selected a player from Quebec in the first round it didn't work out well with Louis Leblanc (18th overall in 2009) and Éric Chouinard (16th overall in 1998).
Central Scouting senior Eastern scout Jean-François Damphousse told NHL.com he likes Carbonneau's scoring drive.
'He has that goal-scoring ability, finds the quiet ice and scoring areas and utilizes his excellent shot release,' Damphousse said about the Lévis native.
With the Canadiens continuing to lack depth at centre, Nesbitt is a player you have to think they have interest in.
'Size, compete level, toughness and never cheats the game,' Spitfires head coach Greg Walters said in a phone interview this week when I asked what he likes most about Nesbitt. 'Just his total 200-foot game. He's so reliable for us.
'Great on faceoffs, a big 6-foot-4 centreman with skill and high-end hand-eye co-ordination,' Walters added. 'He loves to get to the blue paint. Very good down underneath the top of the circles and, most importantly, his high-end character and the willingness to compete at a very high level against whoever he's playing against.'
Nesbitt was the second-line centre on the Spitfires behind Ilya Protas, who posted 50-74-124 totals in 61 games after being selected by the Washington Capitals in the third round (75th overall) of last year's NHL Draft. But Walters used Nesbitt in all situations, including power play and penalty-kill.
McKenzie pointed out that Nesbitt hasn't fully filled out and that his skating needs work.
'He's tall and lanky right now,' Walters said. 'So his strength is the No. 1 thing. His skating has come extremely far here in the last year and it will just keep getting better as he gets stronger.'
Jeff Gorton, the Canadiens' executive vice-president of hockey operations, and GM Kent Hughes have put a lot of focus on character when drafting players.
'Jack Nesbitt is a team-first guy, always,' Walters said. 'First guy at the rink, last to leave. Teammates love him. Just a great kid to be around. He's always in a good mood, but when the game's on the line he has that nasty side to him. He's got the switch.
'The thing with Jack is that he just keeps getting better every day, so the sky's the limit for him.'