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The NHL offseason has just begun and we aren’t too far off the draft and free agency. The Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning gave us a fine Stanley Cup Final. Neither of them will be around the top of the draft. Shane Wright, Juraj Slafkovsky and Logan Cooley are among the top prospects who could go No. 1 overall to the Montreal Canadiens. Let’s take a look at when the draft will take place.
When is the 2022 NHL Draft?
The 2022 NHL Draft will be July 7-8 in Montreal at Bell Centre, home of the Canadiens, who also have the first pick. The Habs were coming off a trip to the Stanley Cup Final. That seems like a distance memory given how awful Montreal performed a season after. The Canadiens just traded away captain Shea Weber and it’s unclear if the team is still a project or ready to get back to competing.
Most mock drafts have the Canadiens looking at C Shane Wright out of Kingston in the OHL. He isn’t a slam-dunk prospect like a McDavid or a Matthews. He’s also got a chance to be very, very good. The Canadiens have needed a center for what seems like two decades now. Wright could be that piece down the middle to elevate some of the forward group in the top-6.