Martin Lapointe, Nick Bobrov discuss the picks

MONTREAL -- Co-directors of amateur scouting Martin Lapointe and Nick Bobrov met the media at the conclusion of the 2022 NHL Draft on Friday afternoon at the Bell Centre.

The pair provided some insight on the Canadiens' Draft class of 11 players, including six forwards, four defensemen and one goaltender.
Here are a few highlights from their press conference:
Lapointe on forward Juraj Slafkovsky:
He's a pretty impressive kid. He's a very strong kid. He's big, but he still has lots of room to grow. He's a kid that you want to be around. He's got such a charisma, you want to be talking to him, you want to be around him. He wants to make a difference, and that's the way he plays the game. Here in Montreal, he just loves it. He had a feel for it on Thursday when all the fans were cheering for him. This guy, he's a hockey player, and he wants to get better. He's not perfect, but he wants to get better, and for me that's a hockey player.

Bobrov on forward Filip Mesar:
Filip Mesar is a center and a winger. He grew up as a center, but played wing as a pro. He's very fast, very skilled, very slippery, very smart. He had great performances at the pro league in Slovakia. He was on the big national team during the middle of the year in the Deutschland Cup and was slotted to be at the World Championships, but hurt his shoulder in the playoffs. We saw him a lot. He's one of those guys that can skate, make plays, and has a really good brain. He's relentless. The fact that somehow we ended up with two childhood friends in the same first round is a bit of a divine providence and an accident, but this kid is focused. We've done a lot of homework on him with Craig Ramsay and Tomas Tatar and people who know this kid. He's an interesting player. Hopefully, he can play center. We'll see. It's never a guarantee, but he's someone who has done a lot in his young career.

Lapointe on forward Owen Beck:
Owen Beck is a 200-foot player. He plays the right way. He's a student of the game. He's a good student at school. He does the things on the ice. He gets "A's" in school and he does "A" things on the ice, and it reflects in his play. Everything is detail-oriented. He's been the best faceoff guy in the OHL, competes, can skate, can make plays, supports his defensemen really well, and he's below the puck all the time. He just plays the right way. He's a good kid. He's very mature.

Bobrov on defenseman Lane Hutson:
He was projected to go higher by most rankings. He was with the NTDP. This year, we believe he was their best defenseman. He still has a lot of room to grow into his body. He wouldn't be considered a fully developed player as we sometimes see at the Draft when there's nothing left to gain weight, to grow, but this kid has a big brain. His hockey sense is very interesting. He has a chip on his shoulder that is very real. The size doesn't deter him, and when you meet him, I think you get a sense and a flavor for what's inside. Oftentimes what he does on the ice is highlight-reel material, it's power play, it's thinking, finding seams, finding plays, finding lanes, so you have to go after these types of defensemen because they're hard to find. We have big hopes for him. He's going to Boston University. He'll have plenty of time to develop, and hopefully he'll have a great year. We're excited.

Lapointe on forward Vinzenz Rohrer:
He's a young player who played for the Ottawa 67's. He plays a 200-foot game and pays close attention to the details of the game. He needs to get stronger, but he's an athlete. He's also a youngster that you want to be around. He makes me think of Juraj, who also likes to be around people and he also attracts people. Vinzenz is just like that. Everything he touches, whether it's a musical instrument or a sport, he excels. He excels at everything. He plays the right way and that's what we want.

Bobrov on defenseman Adam Engstrom:
He played with Djurgardens in Sweden at the U20 level and moved to Rögle, which is one of the best SHL teams where Moritz Seider played. Adam is a late '03 birthday. He's a 6'2" left-handed defenseman. He skates really, really well. He told us a funny story that he always played on a really bad team, so he would just take the puck and skate through the whole team just trying to score that one goal. Imagine trying to develop that way, so skating, size, puck possession, and going into a really good organization in a country that tends to produce a fair number of defensemen, and we like the development curve, we like the situation he's in, we like where he's thought of in Rögle. He was an interesting player. We needed to find some size with sense and skating.
Lapointe on forward Cédric Guindon:
He plays for Owen Sound. He's a very talented kid who's an explosive skater. He can make plays. He isn't the biggest guy, but he can read plays really well. He's from Saint-Jérôme, but he moved to Hawkesbury to play Junior A, and he ended up with Owen Sound. We like his talent and we hope that he'll develop the right way and ultimately play for the Canadiens.

Bobrov on forward Jared Davidson:
He's an '02 birthday, but Seattle is a team that went really, really far in the WHL Playoffs. He was their motor. He's a forward that just doesn't stop. He scores from different positions, he's got a very interesting shot, he's physical, he's relentless, he's the type of player that you imagine playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs because that's the brand that he brings. He's a never-stopping engine with leadership. He's an older kid, but a kid who got better and better the last few years when you couldn't show much because of the lack of games. But, he stepped into a great team this year and took them pretty far.
Bobrov on goaltender Emmett Croteau:
He plays with Waterloo in the USHL. He's a big goalie who moves extremely well. He's going to Clarkson, so as far as a development curve in college, that gives him enough time for development. Our goalie experts were pretty high on this kid. We wanted to find the best goalie we could find a little bit later, and he was No. 1 on that list. We're very happy to have him.
Lapointe on defenseman Petteri Nurmi:
He plays for HPK Hameenlinna in the Liiga in Finland. He's an older player, but he already plays with men. He's a very mobile defenseman who's very good at retrieving pucks in the corners and moving pucks quickly in transition. We'll let him play in Finland. He needs to keep getting stronger, but his potential is high. He can start the rush fast and sees passing lanes well, too, so we're happy that we drafted him.
Lapointe on defenseman Miguël Tourigny:
He's a smaller defenseman, but he's very dynamic offensively. I had the chance to see him play two years ago in Blainville when he was playing under head coach Bruce Richardson. Bruce told me before I went to the game to watch Miguël Tourigny. He wants to be offensive. He has character and flair in his game, and it shows.