Another first-round pick, Tristan Luneau and finding lost time

This is the 26th pick taken from the Calgary Flames in the Tyler Toffoli trade. The draft, by definition highly unpredictable, could have a more random turn in 2022. Mainly due to the pandemic and the lost or interrupted years of development for many young hockey players.

An enviable position despite all this at 26th rank, where CH drafted Noah Juulsen in 2015, where the Sabers dug out Tage Thompson in 2016 and where, more recently, Jake Oettinger, Jacob Bernard-Docker and Jakob Pelletier heard their name.

It was a draft with depth in the first roundsaid Dan Marr, director of the recruiting center NHL Friday.

If you have the luxury of having more than one option, when it comes to your second, you risk having an available player that the team really wants and didn’t think they had. I know we hear that often, but it’s true […] Once you get to your second pick team can take the opportunity to have a more risky pick on a player they really like. They will leave the draft happy, thinking they already have two players who will eventually play for them.explanation of the veteran recruiter.

So some pearls should remain according to some scouts with whom we have exchanged, perhaps more than usual. Will Tristan Luneau be part of it?

The value of this Quebec defender has fallen sharply in the eyes of central recruiting between mid-season and end. Ranked 10th among North American skaters in January, he eventually dropped to 24th, the steepest drop in the top 20 except for Kent’s son Jack Hughes.

After his rookie year last year with Gatineau Olympiques, he is almost expected to appear in the top ten in the entire draft.

And now? I think it will appear between 28 and 40argument of a scout.

At number 26, you usually have between numbers 16 and 22 on your list. So yes, it is too earlyanother answered.

bad wounds

However, Luneau has intriguing potential. Dominating before coming to junior, he was made Olympiques ’first choice in the 2020 draft of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (LHJMQ). There’s the talent. Although it does not guarantee being No. 1 in the junior league, Joshua Roy reminded everyone this season that it can be risky to give up raw talent.

So Luneau is entitled to the big tour during evaluation camp in Buffalo this week. In total, 26 teams called him for an interview, including the Canadiens, of course. We didn’t challenge him too much.

These are pretty easy questions in the same mold. I talked with the others to prepare myself a bit and I heard things like what animal are you compared yourself to. Some have been challenged and shown excerpts of their bad presence to ask them what they are doing there. I don’t have that yet, but I heard goodhe explained when we met him.

A model student, a young man with a lively mind, Luneau expresses himself very well and clearly flaunts his thinking. It may not have been necessary to push the investigation to fully understand his identity. Like what’s been revolving around the past few days, the Habs have been particularly sharp on him. Most players also identified CH as the most difficult interview.

They’re kind of pushing me. They want to know if we have a good knowledge of our strengths and weaknesseshe launched.

He had to fully explain himself to this left knee surgery last summer that slowed him down drastically. A small sore that gets worse over time. The surface of the bone is not smooth; it creates friction, tension and inflammation in the joint. Luneau considered he had been playing with joint pain since he was 12. Surgical intervention became necessary.

” In my physical development, I found that I really caught up with my age group. “

After a year partially damaged by the pandemic, he had to give up an entire summer of training. Before his draft season. Getting back into the game is painful.

I really wasn’t on my own before the holidays. Disappointing at first. This is a year where you try to promote yourself. Try to show who Tristan Luneau is and what kind of defender you want to be. But the fact that I wasn’t able to show that or help my team win as much as I wanted was pretty frustrating.he explained.

I put everything in perspective and told myself that it was a process to come back from an injury and that it would last. If it affects my draft, it will affect. That’s still a number. If it slows down my progress, it may take me a little while for me to reach my dream, but at the same time, it’s not how fast you get there, but how long you stay there. when you get back.to chain Luneau.

His maturity penetrated the screen. He’s no longer seen as the best Quebec prospect in the repechage – Nathan Gaucher and Maveric Lamoureux have already passed him on in the minds of many people – but he doesn’t put himself in the lead for all of that.

Luneau relies on the work and support of his family and his siblings, three in number. The four little Luneaus must have raised the grocery charge at the time, as they were sporty.

The oldest played football. The second, Maxime, was recruited by Cirque du Soleil and spent the last three years in China before returning home. The father played with Laval Titan and the mother was a figure skating coach.

The clan is rich.

Luneau wanted to come out in the first round, but it didn’t bother him either. He spent the week with Lamoureux and Noah Warren. The three Quebec backs had a bit of friendly competition to see who would come out first.

Ultimately, as Luneau himself said, it’s just a number.