Kent Hughes made three moves in the early stages of the last draft, first selecting Juraj Slafkovsky. He then traded Alex Romanov to the Islanders for the 13th overall pick, and then traded that 13th pick for Kirby Dach. Habs fans loved Romanov, but in the opinion of Shane Kelly, director of analytics at SMT, an advanced statistics company, acquiring the 13th overall pick for the young Russian defenceman was a steal. <q> I really liked this trade for the Habs. With the season he had last year, to get such a good pick for him was a fantastic return. To be honest, in his first NHL season he played very well, but last season it was the complete opposite. He was one of the worst regular defensemen in the entire NHL. I think the team management wondered who the real Alexander Romanov was and came to the conclusion that he was the one we saw last year. That's why we decided to trade him even though he was so beloved by the fans and his teammates. -Shane Kelly</q> <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/TSN690/status/1565064477271363585?t=Dv-diVD2qXQxkT_JQmb9cQ&s=19'> </a></blockquote></div> It's pretty unfair to call Romanov one of the worst regular defensemen in the league, given the Habs' disastrous season. However, if the advanced stats are any indication, that is indeed the case. Credit: <a href='https://www.rumeursdetransaction.com/equipe-lnh/canadiens-de-montreal/Un-expert-en-statistiques-avancees-affirme-que-Kent-Hughes-a-realise-un-vol-au-dernier-repechage' class='lien_marqueur' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Rumeursdetransaction.com </a>