The Habs have a very good pick with the 5th overall on June 28. However, if Kent Hughes intends to select a higher-ranked player because his targets are no longer available, there's always the possibility that he'll fall back a few spots. Everything points towards the top 4 being Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Leo Carlsson and Will Smith, which would leave Matvei Michkov or other names a little less exciting for the Habs. According to Grant McCagg, Kent Hughes may be tempted to make a deal with the Detroit Red Wings. Steve Yzerman is reportedly very interested in Matvei Michkov. <q>If Detroit offered the number 9 and 17 picks to advance to the 5th overall, I'd take the bait. Having a top-ten pick, two top-20s and three first-round picks for the first time in the same draft since Sam Pollock was general manager wouldn't be a bad thing. - Grant McCagg</q> Indeed, the Wings own the 9th and 17th picks. If Kent Hughes gets his hands on those two selections and keeps the 31st as well, it would be the first time the team has drafted three times in the 1st round since the Sam Pollock era, who was GM from 1964 to 1978. <blockquote class=twitter-tweet><p lang=en dir=ltr>I could see both DET and WASH trying to move up to 5 to get Michkov ahead of Arizona. At 8 or 9 at least one of Leonard, Dvorsky, Reinbacher and Willander are there and they're all good fits for the Habs IMO. I'd try to initiate a bidding war and move down if the price is right.- Grant McCagg (@grantmccagg) <a href=https://twitter.com/grantmccagg/status/1671505934403751940?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>June 21, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src=https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js charset=utf-8>