The Habs found their HIDDEN GEM with this pick...

The Montreal Canadiens have found a hidden gem in the 2025 NHL Draft. This right-shot defenseman from the Medicine Hat Tigers, Bryce Pickford, has been on an absolute tear this year, seeing a huge jump in production, 20 goals, and a monstrous playoff run. Yet he was available to Montreal with a late pick. We have to dive into Pickford, what makes him such a sneaky good pick, while being an overager, and the implications on the Habs long-term, and what their strategy is. But it's not just that. the Habs also went off the board to select a Belarusian goaltender a big boy six foot four that sets a very interesting trend for Habs picks we got a lot to break down on this episode of Habs Digest and we'll start there with our new Belarusian boy and that is Arseny Radkov a very athletic goaltender for Steven Ellis great butterfly feels like an off the board pick but one European scout called him quote potentially the biggest steal of any goaltender in the class exciting to see what he can do against tougher competition i believe jesse he was ranked in the top 10 of all eu goalies so very interesting selection by montreal seems to be probably not on a lot of people's draft boards i mean he only played 19 games in the MHL this year but he had a 918 save percentage 3.18 GAA to me this uh brings a lot of comparables to Evgeny Belokon the russian goaltender that we drafted just two years ago after also only playing like 30 games in the MHL i really love this idea that montreal's just going out getting big goalies with good upside super athletic big goalies is always a good thing jesse i know we picked another one a bit later in the draft a big guy but to focus on Radkov hey going off the board if you got your guy you think he's going to be good plus he's still only 17 i kind of like this bit i mean russia has been producing some amazing goaltenders lately he was the 12th ranked european goalie here um going from this draft here but it's like such a balanced approach but i can't use again of kind of every single year of looking to kind of draft a goalie at least at one of the rounds there because we know those hidden gems can be found just anywhere really in in the draft when it comes to these goalies here and he definitely could be there's a couple guys that maybe could fit that diamond in the rough and and Radkov is definitely part of that because he he's got some good size at six four um but he definitely uses it very very well that's the big thing it's you know for such a young goalie for again the technique is it's showing at a very young age showing a lot of poise standing his ground not not quick to collapse in that net and very much use his frame that he has so this is definitely going to be another very solid pick and again with kqs with like the amazing drafting we're doing josh it's like it just gives us that much more credence like there's a reason we just get that much more excited every year with these picks because like we're seeing what previous years what they've done how they've contributed to this team how they're used to help get us impact players for this team like like Heinemann was recently so just so amazing to see how we're able to really develop our prospects yeah 100% and look this guy just seems like I know one of those guys that could come out of nowhere and there's also a lot of benefit for him because it's very interesting he committed back in February to play at the University of Massachusetts starting in 2026-27 so he's going to stay in Russia for one more year but he's going over to UMass so we're coming over to North America very soon again to play college hockey but this upcoming season for Radkov is really going to be telling look again one of these kind of boom or bust kind of picks he's very young still he doesn't even turn 18 until August of course still draft eligible very young promising numbers in the MHL like you said Jesse like we like to take these riskier picks especially on Russian or Belarusian or kind of Eastern European guys because we have you know Nick Bobrov certainly seems to present an advantage and we've done a very good job of scouting these types of players before including Ivan Dmitrov somehow getting him at five still insane but leave your thoughts on Radkov down below he could be interesting but well he could be a hidden gem in and of itself Jesse I want to talk about Bryce Pickford now this is from Canadians who's on Twitter just very very interesting look picked him in number 81 he's six foot six feet tall 190 pounds but he's got an insane goal scoring ability he was a plus 23 in the playoffs alone Jesse 20 goals in 48 games this year and I saw this one as well that I wanted to show from Link Zanovich I believe uh but still Montreal adds an already solid draft who I believe was the best coverage skater in Bryce Pickford solid two-way D for Medicine Hat and exploded with a ton of goals in the postseason what a draft after trading both of your firsts and you can see Craig Button had him 68th Peter Baraccini had him 66th but some places had him really low and he's very intriguing because he played a big role in the playoff run but he's an overager Jesse he's 19 right so he his draft year was last year but 20 goals in 48 games 13 goals in 18 playoff games as a defenseman and he had a stretch this year with 12 goals in nine games Bryce Pickford to me is one of those guys the teams are like maybe a little more scared to take a flyer on because he's an overager again Medicine Hat had a certain player join them this year that made him a lot better but when I watch him play Jesse I can't help but get excited as we know right D is a very coveted position it is for sure and again like being above a point per game still as a defenseman though 71 points in uh 66 games for him um again you know and really turning it on in the playoffs still as you know overager but as a defenseman in the WHL still not very you know still not too too bad at all for sure you gotta feel like Gavin McKenna is helping him out there helping out with that plus 34 ranking plus minus but again that's an offensive d-man you have to say having a plus 34 ranking that's still a very good look where you can really have your cake and eat it here too but i think it's kind of looking at its own merit like this is somebody that can shoot the puck like and for his size like has the deceptively heavy shot for only 183 pounds six foot again he's gonna grow into that that frame still fairly young at 19 years old here as well um so i think a lot to like offensively from from this guy's game as well like seems that the habs that we're leaning towards it but it's a trend in the nhl now where it's like we're not just relying on our forwards where we're seeing like d-men need to be able to do it as well they need to be able to join in the rush they need to be able to have a great shot once they get the puck there so that puck really seems to be in line with that philosophy yeah absolutely he again like we talked about it in last video like we talk about all the time it's like we have clear goals here a good offensive good solid two-way right shot defenseman who when especially is on a team who can go all the way and win a championship memorial cup this year like when you have good players around you and you can produce that's very important i mean maybe pickford's not the kind of guy that can drive you know an offense from himself being on d all the time but again regardless if you have good players around you you make special things happen and when you look at the future of the montreal canadiens like these later round picks jesse i know we talked a bit about it last year as well like Kyler Thorpe, a later round pick who's gonna play for Laval next year, a guy like Owen Prots feels that need for physicality a guy like and even Volokin was a later round pick, right? These guys all matter, we're seeing AHL guys coming into Laval next year, we already have a bunch of guys like Logan Mailloux, like David Reinbacher who are ready to make that jump, having this constant flow of highly talented prospects with some really sneaky good upside is something that keeps teams successful for years and like 5, 10, 15 years into the future when you can make the most value of your picks you have your set criteria and you go out, you don't care what anyone else says, like that Radko pick, we didn't care what anyone else said, bit off the board, we're taking him, right? We had Zharovsky at 16 or 17, hey we traded our picks, we still got him when we wanted to get him, if Montreal scouting continues this way, Jesse, I have a hard time believing that we'll ever be short on prospects whether for trades or for filling roster holes in the future when we need to maybe have cheaper rookie scale deals to go along with our big contracts and that's why our drafting is so good, the fact that we don't have a pick in the first round but we feel like we could get a player like Zavrotsky, like that could be in our top six, like that's the upside here, like absolutely swing for the fences, like is there any other play that really makes sense, like we love our captain, we love our backs but we're looking for kind of some of those breakthrough players to really kind of you know kind of have that balance again and that's the big thing as you mentioned, Josh, like the flow being able to have players that have the chance to contribute year in year out, that's what all the best teams do, they just find one way or another through their drafting even if they don't have the best picks all the time to still bring in a player and teams are able to do that every single year and you could kind of argue that this is the big difference of like being able to get the rosters of the world if they pan out or make those type of picks in the later round it's teams that we've seen with the stars and even like you know the Leafs like it's not my favorite team but like did they do a great job in like drafting guys or something like they don't have like a bunch of first round picks all the time but they've done a good job of when they had picks of getting some impact guys it's really those certain differences that's really going to help you know certain teams a lot going forward to really replenish that team and i'm really excited to see what we do now especially with our development program that we didn't have for so many years paying dividends already i'm so excited to see how all these guys pan out look we get our guys we trade up for them we do whatever we need to and i'm so so excited but leave your thoughts on Bryce Pickford and our boy Radkov down below it's very very interesting the future of the Montreal Canadiens after this draft but hey if you want to stay up to date on all the other draft picks we'll have more videos coming out in the next few days highlighting some really interesting guys keep an eye out for LJ Mooney a player that I think will uh will be very exciting to discuss but hey for now that'll do it for this episode of Habs Digest if you enjoyed leave a like comment subscribe to the channel thank you for tuning in every single day I'm Josh Goss my co-host Jesse Poitier we'll catch you in the next one