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NHL Mock Draft 2016: Who do the experts think the Canadiens will take?

The NHL entry draft will begin with the first round on Friday night, and the Montreal Canadiens currently hold the ninth overall pick. There has been plenty of discussion as to what the Canadiens should do with it, and we will soon find out what they have decided on.

We have previously explored the possibility that the Canadiens would trade up to improve their draft position, but there are also compelling reasons for the Canadiens to trade down. However, given the apparently high prices being asked by general managers around the League for moving high draft picks, the most likely scenario for Friday remains that the Canadiens will stick with that ninth overall pick.

The question then becomes who will the Canadiens select when it is their turn to speak at the podium in Buffalo? For sure we know that players such as Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, Jesse Puljujarvi, and Pierre-Luc Dubois should be gone.

So when various media prepared their mock drafts, obviously the Canadiens were selecting outside of this group. Here is a compilation of various mock drafts to set a baseline for people’s expectations for this coming Friday.

SOURCE PICK
Sportsnet (Cox) Logan Brown
Draft Site.com
NHL.com
MyNHLDraft.com
Sportsnet (Marek)
Bleacher Report
Future Considerations
ISS Hockey
The Hockey Writers Tyson Jost
CSNNE.com
SB Nation
USAToday Mikhail Sergachev
NESN
CBS Sports Alexander Nylander
RotoWorld Michael McLeod
Draft Utopia Olli Juolevi

There is a large consensus building, as you can see. Out of 16 mock drafts, eight predicted that the Montreal Canadiens will pick 6’6″ centreman Logan Brown from the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.

Tyson Jost was EOTP’s pick in SB Nation’s mock draft, as well as two other outlets. Mikhail Sergachev went twice, and the final three were split between Alexander Nylander, Michael McLeod, and Olli Juolevi.

So the favourite for now seems to be Brown, but we’ll have to wait until Friday and see what happens.

UPDATE: TSN also selected Logan Brown to Montreal, while le Journal de Montreal bucked the trend and chose Clayton Keller.

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