Montreal Canadiens clinch last overall for first time since 1939-40, secure top odds in 2022 NHL draft lottery
Hockey franchises don’t come any prouder than the Montreal Canadiens, who have 104 NHL seasons to their name and almost twice as many Stanley Cup championships as the next-best team. The Habs have enjoyed so many highs in their history that when they hit an all-time low, it’s particularly memorable.
It happened Wednesday night. When the Arizona Coyotes rallied from a 3-0 deficit and pushed the Dallas Stars to overtime before winning on a Tyler Boyd goal, the Yotes secured, at worst, a tiebreaker over the Canadiens to finish 31st overall. The Habs are now locked into 32nd, good for their first last-overall finish since 1939-40. Put differently, it’s their first last-place finish in an NHL with more than six teams. The Habs’ .327 points percentage is also their lowest since 1939-40 and their third-worst in 104 seasons. It’s a particularly jarring stat considering they reached the Stanley Cup final in 2020-21. They’re the first team since the 2002-03 Carolina Hurricanes to finish last overall after reaching the final the season prior.
Montreal got a temporary surge in the standings when Martin St. Louis took over as interim head coach in February, going 12-10-4 in his first 26 games, but petered out down the stretch, losing nine straight before snapping the skid Wednesday night with a win over the New York Rangers. It wasn’t enough to escape the 32nd-overall finish.
Placing last has its benefits, of course. Montreal now owns the best odds to win the May 10 NHL draft lottery at 18.5 percent and earn the chance to select probable No. 1 overall pick Shane Wright from the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs. The Habs haven’t picked first overall since 1980 when they snagged Doug Wickenheiser.
The 2022 NHL draft goes down July 7-8 – in Montreal at the Bell Centre.