DALLAS — It was 102 degrees outside when Filip Zadina walked into the American Airlines Center to find his seat a couple rows up from the floor on the first night of the 2018 NHL draft. He’d spent Friday afternoon at the Dallas aquarium with his family, passing the time and calming his nerves. He was nervous, because he had no idea where he’d be picked.



He thought maybe Montreal. A couple days earlier, he saw Canadiens assistant general manager Trevor Timmons at their team hotel and told him if Canadiens passed on him, he’d fill the nets in Montreal with goals.



“He was laughing,” Zadina told The Athletic. “It was just a joke.”



No. 3 overall to Montreal was as high as Zadina was going to go, with Rasmus Dahlin and Andrei Svechnikov virtually locked in with the first two picks. Zadina isn’t the kind of player who thinks about how low it might go. He remembers meeting with the Red Wings, picking at No. 6, at...