Montreal Canadiens’ 5 Best Draft Picks of All-Time

Spending the entirety of a playing career with a single franchise is no small feat. Some examples of current homegrown NHL talent that have yet to sport a different jersey are Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Anze Kopitar, and Brad Marchand — and it’s no coincidence that all four of those players are the captain for their respective clubs. While the current Montreal Canadiens roster is comprised of an influx of acquired players through trade, waivers, or free agency such as Nick Suzuki, Samuel Montembeault, or Arber Xhekaj (who signed as an undrafted free agent), the team has seen several iconic players be drafted and stick with the team throughout the majority — if not the entirety — of their careers.

Here are the five best homegrown Canadiens players, weighed on impact, success, longevity, and contributions to the team. Something of note is that this list dates back to the first NHL Amateur Draft in 1963 — as a homegrown player must have been drafted by the team.

Honourable Mentions — Steve Shutt (1972-1985), Max Pacioretty (2008-2018), P.K. Subban (2009-2019)

5. Saku Koivu, 21st Overall in 1993 (1995-2009)

Saku Koivu was perhaps the most impactful Canadiens player during the childhood of the demographic that has aged alongside current stars like Suzuki and Cole Caufield. While he was a heralded two-way centre during the peak of his career, his most admirable feat is certainly overcoming an aggressive type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that put his career on hold for nearly the entirety of the 2001-02 season. Not only did Koivu remarkably return for the final three regular-season games, he helped the team secure a playoff spot and ultimately defeat the one-seed Boston Bruins in six games.

Koivu followed up his incredible comeback with a career-best 71 points in 2002-03, which he would later top with 75 in 2006-07. His 0.85 points per game during the NHL’s ‘Dead Puck Era‘ from 1996-2004 ranked as 31st among all skaters. He won the Bill Masterton Trophy for his miraculous comeback in 2001-02, and the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 2006-07 for his exemplary leadership. The first European-born captain in franchise history stands as the longest-tenured captain for the Habs alongside Jean Beliveau.

4. Guy Carbonneau, 44th Overall in 1979 (1980-1994)

Guy Carbonneau spent the majority of his playing career in a Canadiens uniform, spending a total of fifteen seasons in the team’s system (parts of two with the American Hockey League’s Nova Scotia Voyageurs). Perhaps known for his responsible defensive style of play more than any other Canadiens forward, Carbonneau won three Selke Trophies as the league’s top defensive forward (1988, 1989, 1992).

Being an instrumental part of an extremely successful team during the prime of his career, the 2019 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee won two Stanley Cups with Montreal (1986 and 1993), including the team’s most recent. He would add a third Stanley Cup ring with the Dallas Stars in 1999 before retiring the following season.

3. Carey Price, 5th Overall in 2005 (2005-2022)

Carey Price has yet to officially retire from the NHL, but when he does, he will enter retirement as a sure-fire Hall of Fame inductee and one of the greatest goaltenders in franchise history. Having played all of his 712 career games with the Canadiens, he is the franchise’s winningest netminder with 361 career victories. He was far and away the team’s most valuable player for the bulk of his tenure, which peaked in 2014-15 when he won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP, the Vezina Trophy as top goaltender, and the Ted Lindsay Award as MVP voted by his peers.

While he infamously never played with an 80-point scorer, Price managed to carry the Canadiens deep into the playoffs on several occasions. He led the team to the 2014 Eastern Conference Final before he was controversially injured after a collision with Chris Kreider, and carried them all the way to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Following his first and only Stanley Cup Final appearance, Price would play in just five more NHL games before winning the Masterton Trophy in 2022.

2. Larry Robinson, 20th Overall in 1971 (1972-1989)

Similarly to Carbonneau, Larry Robinson spent parts of two seasons with the American Hockey League’s Nova Scotia Voyageurs prior to debuting with the Canadiens. Robinson spent all but the final three seasons of his near-1,400-game NHL career with the Habs, scoring a total of 958 points — which ranks ninth all-time among defensemen. His 883 points with Montreal are the most by a defenseman in franchise history.

A two-time Norris Trophy winner as the league’s top defenseman, the Ontario native was nominated for the award in five consecutive seasons from 1976 to 1981. He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy as Playoffs MVP in 1978, during a run of four straight Stanley Cups for the Canadiens. In addition to his accolades as an offensive defenseman, his rating of plus-722 is the highest in league history — 140 ahead of the second-place Bobby Orr. He remarkably qualified for the playoffs in all 20 seasons of his career, which is a record Nicklas Lidstrom later matched.

A six-time Stanley Cup champion, as a player, he was named to the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players of All-Time in 2017 and inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1995, just three seasons after retiring.

1. Guy Lafleur, 1st overall in 1971 (1971-1985)

Selected during the same as Robinson, Canadiens great Guy Lafleur is arguably the franchise’s greatest player — and among the best players to ever play in the NHL. The team’s all-time scoring leader with 1,246 points, Lafleur became the first player ever to record six consecutive seasons of at least 50 goals and 100 points from 1974 to 1980 (his lowest point total during that span being 119). After falling out with then-coach and former teammate Jacques Lemaire in 1985, “Le Démon Blond” promptly retired and was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988 before returning to the NHL for three seasons split between the Quebec Nordiques and New York Rangers.

His 1.20 points-per-game ranks 12th in league history, ahead of other notable all-time greats such as Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, and Eric Lindros. The 1977 Conn Smyth Trophy winner won five Stanley Cups, three Art Ross Trophies as the league’s top scorer, two Hart Trophies, and seven Molson Cups as Canadiens’ MVP. He ranks as the 11th-greatest player in NHL history according to The Hockey News (from ‘The Top 100 NHL Players of all-time, throwback style’, The Hockey News, 4/2/15).

The Montreal Canadiens have certainly seen no shortage of immense talent come from the draft in their storied existence. Several current homegrown players such as Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Lane Hutson will look to mark their mark in the Canadiens’ history books, while they attempt to follow in the footsteps of other Habs greats such as the five listed above.