The real reason Shane Wright wasn't picked at #1.

Although it felt like a game changing moment at the time, the dust has finally settled after the excitement that was the 2022 National Hockey League Entry Draft in Montreal. As a result we are starting to hear more and more about how everything went down the way it did at one of the most exciting drafts in recent memory, including the now infamous decision by the Montreal Canadiens to pass on forward Shane Wright.

There has been plenty of speculation as to why the Canadiens decided to go with Juraj Slafkovsky over Wright but recently on the Hockey Sense podcast, NHL writer Chris Peters revealed that it was the draft combine that may have damaged Wright's value in the eyes of not only the Canadiens, but several other NHL teams as well. As you might expect in a situation like this, it wasn't one single factor that spelled the end of Wright as the first overall pick in the draft.

Peters began by revealing that Wright's interviews at the NHL scouting combine had not gone well for him.

"Here's the thing about Shane Wright," began Peters on the podcast. "I think part of where people starting catching wind that maybe Montreal wasn't so in love with him was after the combine. I had heard that Shane Wright's combine did not go well, on a number of fronts. The interviews were detrimental to his draft stock, that's about as far as I would want to put it."

Peters went on to reveal that some teams had already had some concerns about Wright's play coming into the scouting combine, with the interviews seemingly cementing those doubts.

"There was concern already about the game, and the combine didn't necessarily differentiate himself."

Perhaps the concern regarding his level of play was due in part to the fact that Wright didn't play the year prior to his draft year as a result of the pandemic, choosing to shit out rather than go to Europe and play as some of his peers had done.

"I think he got pushed quite a bit.. what I've heard is a lot of teams really pushed him," said Peters. "One of the things that they pushed him about was why didn't he play anywhere last season, the previous season to his draft year."

At the end of the day while this may reflect poorly on Wright now, it can all serve as fuel for his motivation to prove the 3 teams that passed on him wrong. It certainly is going to be very interesting to see what kind of player he becomes for the Seattle Kraken.