Owen Beck: his first NHL mandate will be to unseat Jake Evans

Last year, Owen Beck was urgently recalled to the CMJ due to the injury to Kirby Dach’s brother, Colton.

This year, however, he’ll have the opportunity to start on one of the top four threes from Day 1. Prior to the announcement of Matthew Poitras’ arrival with Team Canada, the Canadian prospect was training on the fourth. I’m sure he’s hoping for a more offensive role, but he’ll still have the opportunity to move up quickly, as he did in 2022.

The Ontario center isn’t the most prolific scorer of his generation, but he does an honest job, especially defensively. A bit like Jake Evans, basically.

In fact, Marc-Antoine Godin, on the Tellement Hockey podcast, believes that his first mandate in the Bettman circuit will be to unseat Evans.

Episode 282 of the podcast is now online!

@MAGodin, @GasconAlexandre and @AlexKoop

Watch it here https://t.co/mdzMD6UuuY pic.twitter.com/JJcsu73jCX

– Radio-Canada Sports (@RC_Sports) December 20, 2023

Evans may not necessarily be the unanimous choice of Tricolore fans, but he’s definitely an NHL player.

It’s a bit harsh to compare a top-tier prospect to a 30-point max center, but there you go. By the way, Alexandre Gascon has spoken with several scouts, and one of them believes that the Canadiens’ number 71 is Beck’s target, in other words, the kind of player the youngster could try to become.

Godin, for his part, was keen to calm the ardour surrounding the Peterborough Petes protégé. No, he won’t necessarily become a third-trio center who could score 20 goals.

One thing’s for sure: the Habs have been hoping for an offensive blossoming from their prospect, but it hasn’t materialized yet. At least, not at the desired level.

The team’s former second-round pick in 2022 is still holding his own in terms of points per game. In 2022-2023, he collected 66 points in 60 games (1.1) and this season, his 25 points in 20 games correspond to a total of 1.2 points per game.

With the team’s depth at center, the guys at Tellemant Hockey may be right: Beck could be an Evans in the making…

In Brief

– Heavy loss for the Lightning.

– Marc-Édouard Vlasic is having a tough time. [Reddit]

– Jakob Chychrun back in the desert.

First game back in Arizona for #GoSensGo defenseman Jakob Chychrun.

His path to this point is wild – full of frustration, most of which we’ve never known, and some feel-good highs. Let him tell you.

Frankly Speaking: https://t.co/C44D8Ag0NE

Presented by @betwaycanada. pic.twitter.com/XWfPORLWTU

– Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) December 20, 2023

– Juraj Slafkovsky gives Cole Caufield wings. [BPM Sports]