Mississauga Steelheads centre scooped up by Montreal Canadiens in NHL draft

A centreman for the Mississauga Steelheads could be headed to the big leagues with a second round draft pick from the Montreal Canadiens.

The Canadiens kicked off the second round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft on Friday with Steelheads centre Owen Beck, who was previously named scholastic player of the year at Canadian Hockey League awards in June.

Beck was selected at 33rd overall following a 51 point in 68 games season with Steelheads this season.

The NHL goalie market continued to solidify at the draft on Friday, with the Detroit Red Wings getting things started when they acquired pending unrestricted free agent Ville Husso from the St. Louis Blues for the 73rd pick.

The pending unrestricted free agent subsequently signed a three-year contract extension.

The New Jersey Devils then got into the action shortly thereafter when they acquired Vitek Vanecek from the Washington Capitals for two picks — No. 37 and No. 70.

The trades came after a series of moves on the crease before and during Thursday’s first round of the draft.

The Minnesota Wild re-signed Marc-Andre Fleury to a two-year extension worth US$7 million, while the Colorado Avalanche acquired goaltender Alexandar Georgiev from the New York Rangers for three picks.

The Maple Leafs got in on the action, dumping the underperforming Petr Mrazek’s $3.8-million cap hit on the Chicago Blackhawks in a swap of picks that saw Toronto move back from No. 25 to No. 38. Toronto used that pick to select centre Fraser Minten of the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers.

The Edmonton Oilers also made a move with an eye towards their goaltending by trading winger Zack Kassian and his $3.2-million cap hit to the Arizona Coyotes.

Leafs goalie Jack Campbell and Darcy Kuemper of Stanley Cup champion Colorado are the two biggest names on the UFA netminding board with the free-agent market set to open Wednesday.

The deals continued with Philadelphia acquiring defenceman Tony DeAngelo and a seventh-round pick from Carolina for the Flyers’ fourth-round pick, plus a conditional third-round pick in 2023 and a second-round pick in 2024.

The Flyers announced shortly after that they signed DeAngelo to a two-year contract extension.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 8, 2022.