yesterday 07:50
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This year’s overseas NHL draft was full of surprises. Slovak hockey fans were surprised in a positive sense, Canadian ones in a negative sense.
Canadian center Shane Wright has been at the top of all draft rankings practically continuously for the past three years. The situation started to change in Juraj Slafkovský’s favor literally just a few hours before the draft. Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes himself said after the draft that his team did not make a final decision on the Slovak forward until Wednesday morning.
While in Slovakia there was celebration until the early morning, on the other side of the Atlantic there was disappointment. The vast majority of Canadian fans expected Montreal to reach for the home hero – Shane Wright.
But in the end, he fell to fourth place. In addition to Juraj Slafkovský, Šimon Nemec and Logan Cooley also skipped it.
That doesn’t sit well with controversial Canadian analyst and former hockey player Don Cherry, who said on his podcast: “I watched the draft, but I was completely shocked by it. Admit it yourself, Shane Wright dropped to fourth place. This is incomprehensible to me. I hope Kent Hughes knows what he’s doing, because he’ll be the one to turn the ire of the fans on.
I still think Shane Wright should have been the number one draft pick. Just so Kent Hughes’ bet on Juraj Slafkovski paid off. The fans in Montreal are very demanding, and if they are not satisfied with the play of the Slovak forward, they will definitely make the general manager feel it.”
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