Habs Prospects
Montreal Canadiens Draft Arseni Radkov 82nd Overall
The Montreal Canadiens have selected prospect Arseni Radkov with the 82nd overall pick, in the third round of the NHL Entry Draft.
Radkov, a Belorussian goaltender, spent last year playing for Tyumenski in the MHL. This is the first goaltender the Canadiens have picked up in 2025, adding to an already strong position within the team’s prospect pool. Radkov has committed to playing for the University of Massachusetts (NCAA) in 2026-27.
🚨 WHO DOESN’T LOVE A LATE NIGHT COMMIT??? 🚨
Arseni Radkov is verbally committed to #NewMass!
This 6’4” monster of a goaltender hails from Mogliev, Belarus and LOVES to stop pucks!
He generated buzz at the beginning of this draft cycle as a player to watch!
Welcome Arseni! pic.twitter.com/goBW5EfBPV
— High Character (@HighCharacter_) February 25, 2025
Montreal Canadiens Draft Info
The Montreal Canadiens made their usual splash at the draft weekend, trading both of their first round picks (16th and 17th overall) as well as Emil Heineman to the New York Islanders for top-pairing defenceman Noah Dobson. Despite moving a pair of picks, the Canadiens still held 10 draft picks heading into Day 2 of the NHL Entry Draft.
Dobson, 25, immediately signed an eight-year contract extension with the Canadiens, carrying an annual average value (AAV) of $9.5 million.
There’s no doubt about it, the Canadiens improved their lineup significantly with the Dobson trade, though it may lead to further trades down the road as the salary-cap situation comes into play. Defenceman Mike Matheson, in particular, may end up being moved to ensure more financial manoeuvrability, and there’s a very healthy chance the team will try to trade Carey Price’s contract should they find an organization attempting to reach the cap floor.
This is the fourth consecutive draft weekend that featured a significant trade for the Canadiens, a situation that’s quickly becoming general manager Kent Hughes’ calling card.
He traded a first-round pick in 2022 to ensure he could swing a deal which included centre Kirby Dach. It was followed by a trade the next year that saw Alex Newhook join the Habs in exchange for a late first-round pick and an early second-round pick.
Last season, Hughes packaged a first-round pick as well as a second-round pick in a trade that saw the Canadiens move up the first-round draft order, leading to the selection of Michael Hage, a very exciting prospect who enjoyed a fantastic season in the NCAA with the Michigan Wolverines.
Despite moving a bevy of draft picks, the Canadiens’ prospect pool is still considered to be among the top pipelines in the NHL, which speaks to Montreal’s thorough, yet encouraging game plan to navigate the final stages of the rebuild.
I love big goalies, but do we need any more prospects here? I’d rather be taking some swings at the biggest skaters in the draft and hope we can develop them into NHL players. We have a good amount of skill, but every team have prospect pools with 6’6” players. Just look at the Sabres. They’re going to have the biggest D core in history with the guys they have now and the ones coming. There won’t be any room to go around their last line of defence, so we need to find more guys to go through them.
If we were going to take a goalie, it would have been fun to take 6’8” Trenten Bennett. I could have finally lived out the dreams I had back when we took Jason Missiaen back in 2008.