Going into the 2012 NHL Draft, Habs fans were rooting for their team to select the Sarnia Sting's Alex Galchenyuk.
Galchenyuk's size and talent up the middle gives Canadiens fans hope that their team just drafted the elusive no.1 centre that this franchise has lacked for so long. TSN had him ranked as the no.5 skater in this draft, but that was in large part due to his knee injury that caused him to miss nearly all of last season in the OHL. Had he been healthy, he may very well had been ranked no.2 or even first.
At McLeans Pub on Friday night, the bar gave a reaction of 'obviously' when the Edmonton Oilers took Nail Yakupov with the first pick. The crowd then cheered once the Columbus Blue Jackets took defenceman Ryan Murray because that meant Galchenyuk was there for the Canadiens' taking. Moments later the bar then burst in cheers again when Trevor Timmins called Galchenyuk's name on the podium. A strong majority of Habs fans all loved Galchenyuk as a possible selection, and fortunately for them, so did the Canadiens brass.
His 31 goals, 52 assists for 83 points in the 2010-2011 season is the body of work in which sold the Canadiens and his combine scores made everyone confident that his knee is fully healed.
Whether Galchenyuk plays this year, or next year, Habs fans should be excited because it's the best prospect they've had at the forward position in over a decade. What, who ended up being better?
Galchenyuk seems like a perfect fit for Montreal, due to his traveling around the world, in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, etc... he'll enjoy the European feel of the city. The native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin considers himself an American. He's played for US hockey so there really shouldn't be any talk over the so-called 'Russian Factor'.
Just a little food for thought, and to illustrate that Habs fans have new found hope for the future.
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