The Montreal Canadiens surprised many of their fans when they traded the 31st and 37th overall picks in the 2023 NHL Draft a few days before the event took place.
Many fans had been diving into scouting reports for weeks to see which players could be available with that combination of late first and early second round selections. Then, all of a sudden, they didn’t have those picks an longer.
Instead, they had acquired Alex Newhook from the Colorado Avalanche. The 22 year old forward was drafted 16th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft and had become an NHL regular with the Avalanche for the past two seasons.