MONTREAL — It took the 2022 NHL Draft all of three minutes to go upside down on Thursday night as after three years of Shane Wright being the presumptive No. 1 pick, the opinion of the Montreal Canadiens shifted ahead of the three minutes where it mattered most.

In front of their hometown fans at Bell Centre, the Canadiens threw a curveball, instead announcing that they would be taking Slovakian winger Juraj Slafkovsky with the first pick, prompting roars and gasps, boos and jeers, in English and French alike.

“It was a really big surprise for me,” Slafkovsky told reporters.

And it set the draft on a particularly wild course.

Instead of trading the second pick, as was heavily rumored, and instead of taking Wright, who had seemingly fallen into their laps, the Devils went with defenseman Simon Nemec, cementing a Slovakian 1-2 at the top of the draft and leaving Wright to sit befuddled and bemused.

The Devils, in picking Nemec, eschewed a player in Wright who could have set them up with three potential stars down the middle — Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier already being locked in for the foreseeable future — to try and shore up their blue line instead.

“I’m lost the words,” Nemec told reporters. “We were kids when we dream about the NHL draft.”

When the lack of a long-rumored trade is factored in, with Alex DeBrincat having been shipped to Ottawa for a package of picks the best of which was seventh overall, it all sets up to what will be a lot of second-guessing of New Jersey GM Tom Fitzgerald, who is under pressure to deliver the team its first playoff appearance since 2018.

As for Wright, he was finally taken off the board fourth overall by the Seattle Kraken — after Logan Cooley had gone to the Arizona Coyotes at three.

“I’ll definitely have a chip on my shoulder,” Wright told reporters. “For sure.”

Back at the beginning of the night, there was no doubt that Wright was the preference of the fans in attendance, who erupted into cheers whenever the Canadian was shown on the Bell Centre screens. Instead, this hockey-mad town will have to settle for Slafkovsky, who only dominated the Olympics and World Championships this season, with seven goals in as many games in the former and nine points in eight games in the latter.

“Hockey is their passion as well as mine,” Slafkovsky said. “Maybe some of them didn’t like me, but I will do everything I can to play good for this team and maybe one day, they’ll like me.”