When the Montreal Canadiens made Kaiden Guhle their first-round selection in the 2020 NHL Draft, the choice was met with mixed reactions. The concern was whether they had simply forgone better options in favour of size, something we’d seen them do in the past with their first-round selections.
There was, and remains, a lot more to Guhle’s game than his physicality. Though his draft-plus-one season was essentially cancelled by the pandemic, samples from the World Junior Championship — as well as a short stint with the Laval Rocket — suggested they may have found their next mainstay on the blue line.