The Montreal Canadiens raised eyebrows at the NHL Combine on Friday when it emerged the organization had been handing prospects a puck and pointing them toward a garbage can.
Throw it in. From wherever you want.
Simple enough. Except it wasn't.
According to reporter Marco D'Amico of @mndamico, two prospects walked all the way to the far end of the room and still missed.
Chase Reid was one of them. Caleb Malhotra was the other.
You can almost picture it: the full walk of confidence, the commitment to distance, then the clank.
D'Amico's post noted that the Canadiens told prospects they could throw from anywhere in the room, and that if they missed, Montreal wouldn't draft them. Pressure test, in his words.
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What Kent Hughes is really screening for at the combine
Montreal's front office has made no secret of its focus on character and composure. This test fits that template exactly.
The trash can isn't measuring arm strength. It's measuring how a 17 or 18-year-old handles a low-stakes moment suddenly treated like a high-stakes one.
Walk to the back wall when a ten-foot toss would do? That already tells you something.
GM Kent Hughes has spent four drafts building a culture around competitive instinct and mental toughness. You don't put a garbage can in the middle of a room by accident.
The Canadiens finished this season 48-24-10 under Martin St-Louis, good for 106 points and third in the Atlantic Division. This organization is no longer drafting for the distant future. They're drafting for a roster that needs to win now.
That's a different kind of pressure than a combine interview. And apparently, some prospects walked right into it.
Reid and Malhotra will still get picked somewhere in this draft. Missing a garbage can doesn't end a career. Let's agree that those two players made it clear they don't want to be drafted by Montreal.
Should the Canadiens pass on a prospect who failed their combine pressure test?
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