When people look back at the 2022 NHL Draft, the Montreal Canadiens can feel pretty good about how it played out. They walked in with the first overall pick, took Juraj Slafkovsky, and ended up with the player who still looks like the right call. But a re-draft of that class from The Hockey News tells an even more eye-opening story: the Canadiens may have landed the two best players in the entire draft.
In that re-draft, Lane Hutson goes first overall. That makes sense after the kind of rise he’s put together since being taken 62nd overall in the second round.
He didn’t just become a useful NHL player - he exploded onto the scene. As a rookie, Hutson posted 66 points, won the Calder Trophy, and averaged 22:44 a night.
He took another jump this past season, pushing his ice time up by more than a minute per game while finishing with 78 points and a plus-36 rating. Then he was right in the middle of Montreal’s playoff push, piling up 16 points in 19 games and logging a massive 25:27 per game.
Of course, the Canadiens’ good fortune is that this kind of re-draft only exists as an exercise. If the class were reshuffled, Montreal wouldn’t get to keep both Hutson and Slafkovsky. That’s the part that really matters here: the organization nailed the draft from two different directions.
Slafkovsky, in this scenario, still doesn’t slide far. He lands second overall, which is exactly where the Devils would be happy to take him.
And the production backs that up. He’s scored 72 goals, most among players from the 2022 class, and his 184 points also lead the group by more than 30 over Logan Cooley.
Like Hutson, his strongest season came most recently, when he broke the 30-goal mark for the first time. He also delivered in the playoffs, finishing with six goals and six assists, including a hat trick in the first game against the Lightning.
The Canadiens have done more than just hit on the draft board, too. They locked up both players long term, giving Slafkovsky an eight-year extension in the summer of 2024 and Hutson an eight-year extension last fall.
That kind of commitment has been a big part of why Montreal’s rebuild has worked as well as it has. Under general manager Kent Hughes, the Canadiens have convinced young players to buy in, stay put, and grow with the team. Instead of leaning on free agency, they’ve built around difference-makers they drafted themselves.
A draft class doesn’t win a Stanley Cup by itself. But if Montreal ends up lifting one in the near future, there’s a good chance this is the group that helped get them there.
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