It wasn’t a pick that everyone agreed on, as Saskatoon Blades fan and EOTP editor Bruce Peter was loathe to draft a Prince Albert Raider, and brought up the last Raider the Habs drafted in the first round, Kyle Chipchura, but the consensus view wasn’t changed, and Eyes on the Prize selected Josh Morrissey on behalf of the Montreal Canadiens.
Here are Morrissey’s career statistics:
Morrissey is slightly undersized at 6′, but has the kind of elusiveness that’s rare, even in the NHL, combined with elite level puck skills and instincts. Our own Arik Parnass wrote a profile of Morrissey earlier this month, which you can find here. Being a left handed defenseman, Morrissey was not only the best player available when EOTP made the pick, but also fills an organizational need with nearly every defense prospect in the Canadiens’ system being a right hander. Morrissey has the potential to join P.K. Subban on the top pairing.
NHL Numbers compiled consensus picks from various scouting sources, and ranked Morrissey 14th overall, however Bob McKenzie’s consensus picks ranked Morrissey 28th.
What does this mean? Well it could mean that it’s a similar situation to Nathan Beaulieu in 2011. Beaulieu was ranked as high as the top 10, but fell down to Montreal at 17th, and looked close to NHL ready at the age of just 20 when he was given a cup of coffee with the Habs this year. Morrissey has similar offensive numbers to Beaulieu in his draft year, but it seems like he doesn’t have the same ceiling. Though so far his dad hasn’t beat anybody up, so there’s that.
The decision among EOTP authors was between Morrissey and Robert Hagg, who would you have picked?
| Josh Morrissey | 86 |
| Robert Hagg | 77 |
