BROSSARD, Que.— The broadcast featured Jeff Gorton as an NHL Network panelist, breaking down the attributes of prospects in real-time as they were being drafted into the NHL just four months before he formally accepted the job he currently occupies as executive vice-president of hockey operations for the Montreal Canadiens. 

It was when Zachary Bolduc was taken 16^th overall by the St. Louis Blues that the former GM of the New York Rangers perked up a bit.

“Beautiful skater, lots of talent here,” Gorton started. “He played with (2020 first-overall pick of the New York Rangers Alexis) Lafreniere (in junior), scored 30 goals as a 16-year-old, so he’s been on the map a little bit. Maybe a little bit undersized. But as he gets a little bigger and stronger, he can be a real top-six player for somebody.”

On Tuesday, shortly after free agency opened, Gorton and Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes made a bet it’ll be for them.

Not that Bolduc, who’s bulked up in the four years since draft day, must become that immediately in Montreal. 

The 22-year-old scored 19 goals and put up 36 points in 72 games while playing fourth-line minutes for the Blues this past season and if he replicates that from a bottom-six role with the Canadiens next season, that’ll do just fine.

They gave up Emil Heineman — a six-foot-two, 23-year-old, forechecking winger who had 10 goals and 18 points in 62 games last season — in the deal that brought Noah Dobson to Montreal last week, and the sentiment they’ve already adequately replaced him with Bolduc was emanating from well beyond the war room of their practice facility Tuesday.

“Good skills, doesn’t cheat the game, puck follows him, good hockey brain,” texted one Western Conference executive. “He’s got size, too.”

A scout we spoke with Tuesday afternoon said the offensive upside for Bolduc is higher than Heineman’s and added, “There’s some edge there, as well.” 

Those comments came just after Hughes met the media and said,  “We really saw an improvement in terms of (Bolduc’s) physical play and physical implication over the course of the year, and that was something important to us.”

Bolduc’s presence on the forecheck, in the absence of Heineman’s, made him a viable target for the Canadiens. 

His overall potential made him worth the acquisition cost, with Gorton and Hughes believing he’ll grow with their team and eventually prove to be one of several blocks they’ve put in place in their quest to build a future contender.

They traded Logan Mailloux — another player Gorton covered during the 2021 Draft broadcast — to St. Louis and did it because the 25-year-old Dobson was added to the right side of their top defence pairing, because David Reinbacher projects to eventually shore up the right side of their second, because Alex Carrier is an elite option for the right side of their third, because the path to an NHL future for the former 31^st-overall pick was blocked in Montreal, and because they needed a player like Bolduc.

Blues president of hockey operations and GM Doug Armstrong didn’t want to trade him. 

“It’s very difficult to include Bolduc in any deal, including this one,” Armstrong told reporters assembled in St. Louis before explaining that he acquired Mailloux to shore up the right side of his defence while dealing from the wing — a position of strength, with Jordan Kyrou, Pavel Buchnevich, Dylan Holloway and Jimmy Snuggerud already filling out their top two lines.

The Canadiens have Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Ivan Demidov locked into spots on theirs, and Bolduc will compete for the opening that remains.

“I think I’m a guy who has a good skating stride, who has a good shot and a physical side to my game,” he said via Zoom shortly after he was acquired. “I think it’ll be to bring my best assets to the game the Canadiens play, and it’ll be up to me to make my place in the lineup at training camp.”

The Trois-Rivieres, Que., native, who grew up a Canadiens fan, said he’s still young, learning and, in his estimation, at least two years out from reaching his ceiling.

But Bolduc has already provided lots of evidence that ceiling is high.

He followed up his time in Rimouski by scoring 105 goals over 126 games with the Quebec Remparts to finish his QMJHL career. In his first pro season, he scored five goals and nine points in 25 games with the Blues and had eight goals and 25 points with their AHL affiliate in Springfield, Mass. And Bolduc closed out last season — his official rookie season in the NHL — by scoring 13 of his 19 goals and 18 of his 36 points over the final 24 games.

Whether or not Bolduc picks up on that note, his acquisition patches a hole for the Canadiens.

They still have some others.

As of right now, the best option the Canadiens have at centre for their second line is Kirby Dach, who’s coming off what was expected to be a strong comeback from ACL and MCL reconstruction and proved to be a disaster. 

It started with Dach understandably floundering — he had two goals and nine points through his first 34 games — and ended with him undergoing more reconstructive surgery on that same right knee. His production of eight goals and 11 points over his final 23 games provided a glimmer of hope, but just that.

Granted, Dach didn’t have Demidov and Bolduc to play with then.

Still, the third-overall pick in 2019 is at a deficit to prove he should be between them now.

Alex Newhook (who had 15 goals and 26 points in 82 games played almost exclusively in Montreal’s top six last season) appears much more suited to adequately replace Christian Dvorak between Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson than he would be to centre Demidov and Bolduc. 

But if things remain status quo, it’ll be Newhook and Dach competing for that job.

Hughes said he’s still working to change it — placing phone calls to more likely address the need via trade as opposed to in free agency — but added that he’s prepared to enter next season as is.

“The reality is, we’re not going to put the perfect team together over the course of one summer,” the GM said. “We recognize we have other things we’d like to accomplish; I just don’t see us accomplishing everything all at once.”

Getting Dobson — and signing him to an eight-year, $76-million contract — helps both the present and future. 

For now, he gives the Canadiens a presence they didn’t have on the right side of their blue line last season and makes Carrier a monumental upgrade on David Savard. For the future, he holds promise to help the young core of the Canadiens mature and serve as the anchor to a Cup-contending defence.

For now, Bolduc replaces Heineman. For both now and the future, he has the potential to fill a hole in the Canadiens’ top six.

For now, the Canadiens are potentially at a deficit at centre of their middle two lines. Addressing that will be their primary focus for the future.

Samuel Blais was brought in on a one-year, $775,000-contract to bring some size and sandpaper to the fourth line after six-foot-four winger Joel Armia signed a two-year, $5-million contract with the Los Angeles Kings, and veteran goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen was signed to a one-year, $1.15-million deal after Cayden Primeau was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes.

The 28-year-old Finn could compete with Jakub Dobes for the backup job behind Samuel Montembeault but will most likely serve as a mentor to Jacob Fowler in the AHL. 

Kahkonen’s one-way contract could facilitate him passing through waivers on his way to Laval, and his 140 games of NHL experience makes him a good insurance policy for an injury in Montreal’s crease.

Hughes needn’t do anything more at that position. He doesn’t need to do anything at defence, either, aside from negotiate with Lane Hutson and Mike Matheson, who are both a year away from needing new contracts.

The GM said at the end of the season that he’s hopeful — but not pressed — to get Hutson extended, and he said on Tuesday that he wants to keep Matheson.

“Where did he finish in the league in minutes played? Top-10,” Hughes said. “So, obviously our coaching staff relied on him. We’re young still, we value his experience, we value what he does for our team.”

What Matheson did on the ninth-best penalty kill in the NHL last season is irreplaceable. He averaged 3:28 per game there, which made him the second-most used penalty killer in the league.

Savard, who was second-most used on the Canadiens, retired. And with Dvorak and Armia lost to free agency, the team might require more tinkering from Hughes to keep the penalty kill rolling.

If he can’t find any help in that department, he’s banking on others who weren’t killing penalties to fill the void as admirably as Anderson did in accepting a penalty-killing role last season.

Hughes will keep looking for outside help in all departments, but he’s confident the work he’s already done this off-season will propel the Canadiens forward . 

“I hope we make the playoffs,” he said. “I think that, as a roster, we probably have a better chance than maybe than we did last year at this time. We found our way in and other teams that maybe were expected to didn’t, so you’ve still got to play the games. I think we still have work to do here, from a management perspective, to get to where we want to be, but I like the direction we’re heading.”

We didn’t hear from Gorton Tuesday, but we imagine he agrees and was very pleased with the Bolduc acquisition.