Slafkovsky And Nemec Make History As Top Two Picks In 2022 NHL Draft

In his first year as the Montreal Canadiens general manager, Kent Hughes continues to march to the beat of his own drum.

In front of his team’s fans at Bell Centre and holding the top pick in the 2022 NHL draft on Thursday, Hughes made a daring choice by making forward Juraj Slafkovsky the first Slovak ever to be drafted first overall.

With the second pick, the New Jersey Devils followed up by selecting Slovak defenseman Simon Nemec.

Before this week, only two players from the Central European nation with a population of less than 5.5 million had ever been selected in the top 10: forwards Marian Gaborik at No. 3 in 2000 and Robert Petrovicky at No. 9 in 1992.

Two non-North Americans from the same country have been chosen with the top two picks just once before. Russians Alex Ovechkin (No. 1, Washington) and Evgeni Malkin (No. 2, Pittsburgh) topped the 2004 draft and have both had long, successful careers, won Stanley Cups are on track for eventual induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

With a goal of re-engaging a disgruntled fanbase after going from the Stanley Cup Final in 2021 to a last-place finish in 2022, the Canadiens continued to make things interesting as the first round wore on. Montreal selected a second Slovak, winger Filip Mesar, with the 26th pick that was acquired last season when Tyler Toffoli was traded to the Calgary Flames.

And after choosing to pass over Shane Wright, a reliable center who had long been considered the frontrunner for the top spot in the draft, Hughes swung a pair of deals to shore up his depth down the middle with a more NHL-ready option.

He sent his 98th-overall fourth-round pick and defenseman Alexander Romanov to the New York Islanders in exchange for the 13th pick, then passed that on to Chicago, along with pick No. 66, in exchange for 22-year-old right-shot center Kirby Dach.

Drafted third overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2019, Dach was a highly regarded prospect whose development stalled after he suffered a fractured wrist in the lead-up to the 2021 World Junior Championship. After three pro seasons, he has 19 goals and 59 points in 152 NHL games. He is currently a restricted free agent without arbitration rights.

Romanov is a 22-year-old left-shot defender, who was selected by Montreal in the second round in 2018. He has 19 points in 133 career NHL games and is also currently a restricted free agent. And while the Canadiens’ current depth chart on defense looks thin after the departure of Shea Weber and with Jeff Petry potentially seeking a change of scenery, the club does have some promising rearguards in its system — including 202o first-round picks Kaiden Guhle and Justin Barron and recent NCAA signing Jordan Harris.

Hughes may have more surprises in store when Day 2 of the draft gets underway on Friday at 11 a.m. ET. Montreal holds 10 more picks in Rounds 2-7, including the first pick in the second round (No. 33).

As an additional wrinkle, Hughes’ son Jack is an 18-year-old freshman forward from Northeastern University who is ranked 26th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting. He remains on the draft board.

Blackhawks Tearing It Down

In addition to dealing Dach away, the Chicago Blackhawks made Thursday’s first big trade when they moved sniper Alex DeBrincat to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for three draft picks: No. 7 and No. 39 in 2022, and a fourth-round pick in 2024.

Coming off the second 41-goal season of his career, 24-year-old DeBrincat is under contract for one more season at a $6.4 million cap hit. He’s a dazzling offensive talent, but the Senators will be required to issue him a qualifying offer of $9 million to retain his rights at the end of the 2022-23 season. DeBrincat could potentially become an unrestricted free agent as early as the summer of 2024, if he doesn’t sign a long-term deal in Ottawa.

Just one year after making a big splurge by trading for defenseman Seth Jones and signing him to an eight-year contract extension with a cap hit of $9.5 million per season, the Blackhawks now seem to be in a full rebuild under new general manager Kyle Davidson, who was officially named to the position in February.

In addition to trading Dach and DeBrincat, Davidson sent away goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and depth forward Brandon Hagel at the 2022 trade deadline in March.

Now, franchise cornerstones Patrick Kane, 33, and Jonathan Toews, 34, each have one year remaining on their current contracts at cap hits of $10.5 million each. They may not want to stick around if the Blackhawks are more interested in reaping the spoils of what’s expected to be a rich draft in 2023 than they are in winning games and returning to the playoffs next season.

Davidson also acquired goaltender Petr Mrazek in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, picking up the final two years of the 30-year-old’s deal with a cap hit of $3.8 million per season and giving the Blackhawks one goaltender with NHL experience who is under contract.

Mrazek had a challenging 2021-22 season with the Leafs. In exchange for taking on the financial obligation of his contract, Davidson also moved up 13 spots in the draft, receiving the 25th pick in exchange for the 38th pick.

In the end, despite trading their original first-round pick to Columbus in the 2021 deal to acquire Seth Jones, the Blackhawks ended up picking three times on Thursday. In his first draft, Davidson selected defensemen Kevin Korchinski at No. 7 and Sam Rinzel at No. 25, along with nifty center Frank Nazar at No. 13.

Two other player trades went down on Thursday:

• With Zack Kassian under contract for two more years at a cap hit of $3.2 million, the Edmonton Oilers moved down three spots in Round 1 and dealt a future second and third-round pick to the Arizona Coyotes in order to rid themselves of his contract and free up some salary-cap space.
• Knowing that they wouldn’t be able to afford to keep Alexandar Georgiev as he was set to become a restricted free agent with arbitration rights on July 13, the New York Rangers dealt him to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for three draft picks — one in the third round and two in the fifth.

Joe Sakic Named General Manager Of The Year

Sandwiched midway through Thursday’s proceedings, the NHL announced that Joe Sakic of the Colorado Avalanche had been named the winner of the Jim Gregory General Manager Of The Year Award.

The award is voted by the league’s GMs and a handful of executives and media members. Sakic was announced as a finalist at the NHL Awards on June 21, along with Julien BriseBois of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Chris Drury of the New York Rangers.

After winning two Stanley Cups as Colorado’s captain during his playing days, Sakic has been the GM of the Avalanche since 2014. He helped deliver the organization’s first championship in 21 years last month.

During his tenure, Sakic has proven himself to be a masterful technician in all aspects of his job. Early on, he showed great patience in maximizing trade returns for disgruntled players Ryan O’Reilly and Matt Duchene. More recently, he engineered the savvy trade acquisition of Devon Toews from the New York Islanders, clever free-agent signings like Nazem Kadri and smart drafting including the dazzling Cale Makar at No. 4 in 2017.

This spring, he also made two shrewd trade-deadline acquisitions in Artturi Lehkonen and Andrew Cogliano. Both proved to be key pieces of Colorado’s Stanley Cup march.