MONTREAL \u2013\u2013 The Canadiens landed the best player in the first round of the 2025 National Hockey League Draft \u2013\u2013 and didn\u2019t make a single pick to do it.<\/p>\n
In a year defined by change \u2013\u2013 namely, the historic debut of the decentralized draft outside the pandemic era \u2013\u2013 the Habs embraced their own outside-the-box approach, opting to trade potential for certainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were going into the Combine, we definitely didn\u2019t think we were going to have picks 16 and 17,\u201d the Canadiens\u2019 vice president of hockey operations, Jeff Gorton, told canadiens.com in an exclusive post-draft interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe we would have one; maybe none. But I don’t think any of us really thought we would have both.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gorton described the interview process at the Combine as \u2018speed dating.\u2019 Little did he know then, however, Montreal\u2019s perfect match wouldn\u2019t come from the interview room at all.<\/p>\n
At 9:20 p.m. ET on June 27 \u2013\u2013 in what had become the worst-kept secret of the night \u2013\u2013 the Canadiens announced they had acquired defenseman Noah Dobson in exchange for both of their first-round picks, plus a little extra, in the 2025 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
By then, the announcement was more of a formality, as news of the blockbuster trade had already broken on social media. But as Kent Hughes explained, the delay inside Peacock Theater in Los Angeles wasn\u2019t just for drama.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The trade] came down to the very last minutes,\u201d the Habs general manager outlined. \u201cI don\u2019t know why it was circulating in the media before that, because it wasn\u2019t the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
The holdup, Hughes clarified, stemmed from contractual negotiations. Fortunately for both him and the Canadiens, they reached an agreement with Dobson on an eight-year extension, locking down a bona fide top-pairing defenseman through 2033.<\/p>\n
An alumnus of Bishop\u2019s College School in Quebec\u2019s Eastern Townships, Dobson brings an impressive resume back to La Belle Province. The 25-year-old has posted 50-180\u2014230 totals in 388 NHL games with the New York Islanders since being selected 12th overall in 2018 and is just two seasons removed from recording a career-high 70-point campaign in 2023-24. In doing so, he became only the second defenseman in Islanders history to reach that mark \u2013\u2013 and the first since Denis Potvin in 1983-84.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have the chance to acquire a player like Noah Dobson, even if it means giving up two first-round picks, you have to do it,\u201d said Montreal\u2019s director of player personnel and amateur scouting, Martin Lapointe. \u201cNick [Bobrov] and I were absolutely aligned that [Hughes] should pull the trigger, and he did a great job making it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Hughes, the deal was about more than acquiring a talented player \u2013\u2013 it was about timing and opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not often that a 25-year-old player, with the experience Noah has and what he\u2019s accomplished, becomes available at age 25. For us, it\u2019s really important to have the chance to get someone who\u2019s pretty young, and who we think we\u2019ll be able to sign for the entirety of the prime of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dobson, a Prince Edward Island native, has also represented Canada on multiple occasions, including at the IIHF U18 World Championship, World Juniors and Men\u2019s World Championship.<\/p>\n
Now he has the chance to do something just as special: represent the team he cheered for as a kid in a hockey market, he says, is the best in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opportunity to be a Canadien is something you don\u2019t take lightly,\u201d Dobson said after the deal was finalized. \u201cAs a kid in Canada growing up, it\u2019s a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Habs fans, Friday night felt like a dream, too \u2013\u2013 and by Saturday, the future got even brighter with nine new prospects entering the fold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2013\u2013 The Canadiens landed the best player in the first round of the 2025 National Hockey League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-139331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}