When the Montreal Canadiens won the NHL lottery draft in 2022, the franchise was hoping that the selection would be the jolt the team needed to kick-start their rebuild. The Canadiens already had Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield as pieces of their core for the future, and were looking to add a franchise player in the draft. The Habs selected Juraj Slafkovský with the first overall pick, and while he has a ton of potential, he is not the draft selection that accelerated the team's rebuild; that pick came one round later.
With the Canadiens' fourth selection in the 2022 NHL draft, they selected defenceman Lane Hutson 62nd overall.