Re-draft 2021: Bolduc goes down, Mailloux goes up… and a meteoric rise for Kapanen

Dose
Crédit: MONTREAL, QC - SEPTEMBER 23: Look on Montreal Canadiens center Oliver Kapanen (91) during warm-up before the Philadelphia Flyers versus the Montreal Canadiens preseason game on September 23, 2024, at Bell Centre in Montreal, QC (Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Over the past few days, Corey Pronman has been taking a look back at the draft classes of recent years.In his latest article for The Athletic, the journalist takes a look at the 2021 amateur draft.

It’s fair to say that the Canadiens drafted pretty well this year. Remember, this was Marc Bergevin and Trevor Timmins’ last draft. The Canadiens’ first pick, Logan Mailloux, 31st overall, moves up eleven spots on the list to 20th.

His selection by Montreal had been relatively controversial, as Mailloux had expressed the wish not to be drafted that year in connection with the sex scandal controversies at the time, which partly explains why the defenseman slipped in the draft.

[content-ads] In comparison, Zachary Bolduc, who was traded by the St. Louis Blues for Mailloux earlier this summer, drops one position from 17th to 18th, with only two positions separating the two players. This gives arguments to those who think it’s a one-for-one trade where the two teams fill different needs.

And a one-position drop isn’t anything dramatic, and both players fall into the middle category of the lineup. However, one of the nice surprises in this category is Olivier Kapanen, who jumps 41 positions from 64th to 23rd.

According to Pronman, the forward would have deserved to be selected in the first round of the draft and should be a regular third- or fourth-line player in the NHL. However, the biggest rise by a Habs player in this ranking is that of Joshua Roy, who goes from 150th to 42nd, a jump of 108 positions.

This puts him on the list of those who should be playing a certain number of games in the National League. I think it’s a good representation of Roy’s case; after developing well, he just can’t seem to take the step that would make him a regular player with the Canadiens. He’s missing something.

Unfortunately, the list doesn’t go any further than position 74, so it’s hard to assess where the Habs’ other picks stand in the 2021 draft, but it looks like the old management did a good job in this one [spacer title=’Overtime’] – Listen.

– He ties a legend!

– Packers ahead at halftime.

– So, what the heck!