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Jacob Fowler: the Avalanche and the CH wanted him at the start of the second round
Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Jacob Fowler: the Avalanche and the CH wanted him at the start of the second round
Credit: Getty Images
At this moment, the Canadiens can count themselves lucky to have a guy like Jacob Fowler in their prospect pipeline. He is highly regarded by the club due to his great performances.

The development of a goaltender is always special because it is hard to project. That’s why goaltenders drafted a bit later can sometimes blossom after all.

And Fowler’s case is one of them.

What you need to know is that even though no one drafted him in the first two rounds, his name still circulated in the second round. At least two teams wanted him at the beginning of the second round.

And that’s not counting all the other teams that might have wanted him but are not saying so publicly.

How do we know this? Because Kent Hughes, during his appearance on the Processus podcast, discussed the behind-the-scenes of the 2023 draft to elaborate on this subject.

I invite you to listen to the podcast, available to everyone since this morning. It features a GM who did not just stick to the script.

In essence, Hughes said that if the Canadiens did not trade their picks #31 and #37 to Colorado in exchange for Alex Newhook, their selections would have been Gavin Brindley and… Jacob Fowler.

Brindley ended up being the 34th pick of the draft. The 5’8 center is currently a prospect for the Blue Jackets who has made the jump to the pros this season but is not dominating in Cleveland.

(Credit: Hockey DB)
But because his scouts told him they liked their chances of being able to draft Fowler in the third round, Kent Hughes took the gamble and traded the picks to Colorado for Newhook.

And once the draft was over, Chris MacFarland, the GM of Denver, admitted to his counterpart in Montreal that if he hadn’t traded the #37 pick (which became Ethan Gauthier) to Tampa Bay for Ross Colton, Jacob Fowler would have been his target in the draft.

I don’t know if the Avalanche GM is happy that this came out publicly, but we now know that two teams wanted the Florida netminder at the beginning of the second round.

Note that Colorado, with the #31 pick obtained in exchange for Newhook, drafted Mikhail Gulyayev. The small left-handed defenseman is playing in Russia.

(Credit: Hockey DB)

in brief

-Optional practice this morning for the CH.

– Current rumors in MLB.

– Well deserved.

– Hockey, national sport in Quebec: what does it change? [JdeM]

– Good question.

 

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