If I were the Montreal Canadiens I would not go with the best player available. It’s a generic term that sounds good in the NFL but has no real practical application in hockey. You have a draft board for a reason. You have team needs for a reason. Not today’s needs, organizational needs and that’s for 3-5 years down the road. 

According to Puck Pedia, the Canadiens have two picks at 16 and 17. I’ll go with that but we know that can change. The #17 picks are from Calgary and that has conditions. They are explained here. 

I think the odds of getting a potential second line player is better than a second-pairing defenseman. This isn’t a very deep draft. There will be a fair amount of players that play in the NHL for a period of time. But sticking for 200 games or more is a smaller field than usual in my estimation. That could change after the U18s but right now, that’s how I feel.

I think they should target a forward with some size. If nothing else, just don’t take a smaller forward here. Size and speed is something they need to get. There will be time to get defenseman in this draft and certainly another goalie is always something to think about in every draft. 

The Canadiens have a lot of picks. 12 in total. I normally say get two every draft. In this draft, I still think you might be able to get three. That would be my goal. Anything more than that is gravy.