Alex Newhook’s beautiful goal. pic.twitter.com/8uWB4eEhHo
– Avalanche Forever (@citchmook) March 17, 2022
![Top-15 CH prospects: Introduction, promotions and honorable mentions](https://cdn.buminteractif.com/2023/07/cayden-primeau.jpg)
And here we are again, at this time of year: time for our good old list of the CH’s most important prospects!
A small change, and a sign of the quantity and quality of the Habs’ youngsters, our list goes from 12 to 15 prospects who deserve to be considered as important, i.e. who could have a significant impact on the team’s future success.
Proof of the quality and depth of the team’s pool of hopefuls, last year, just outside the top-12, in our “honorable mentions” list, no less than three players played more than 30 games with the big club: Harvey-Pinard, Ylonen and Xhekaj.
If there’s one concept in the world of field hockey that’s open to a fair amount of subjectivity, it’shope.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s not a question of whether a player is already established in the NHL. Juraj Slafkovsky established himself in the NHL last year, but it’s just that we decided to develop him there rather than elsewhere. We’re still a long way from the finished product in his case.
A bit like “best before” yogurt on July 30 that doesn’t suddenly become inedible at midnight (whatever Tendre MoitiĂ© thinks), the prospect doesn’t suddenly become a veteran who has shown us all his potential becausehe’s played 50, 80, even 110 games in the show.
RHP Goal Compilation available on #YouTube
Click on link here👇https://t.co/5WfgZTMIn7#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/CcYKX3bqnv
– The Curfew Boys: A Montreal Canadiens Podcast (@TheCurfewBoys) May 26, 2023
As we’ve seen, RHP dominated the AHL for a few seasons, then broke out in the NHL before even playing 40 games, and finally emerged as the famous Gallagher 2.0 we’ d longseen in him. Seasons of 20-plus goals – he scored 14 in 34 games last season! – are now on the cards for him in the coming years in a depanneur/grinder/marker role, not to mention the fact that the Quebecer will be an excellent barometer winger for prospects like Slafkovsky.
Like, “ You want to play wing in the top-6, Slaf? Okay, you’ve got to be better than that guy.
For others, the big breakthrough or confirmation may come a little earlier – Caufield at 21-22 comes to mind, as does a mature, intelligent guy like Harris at 22-23. As for the rest, who expects much better offensively (17 points in 65 games) and defensively (+7) from this college-educated fullback who arrived as an almost finished product?
Dach now has 210 NHL games under his belt, and it may seem as though he still has a lot to show us. But what he does have to show is essentially a full season’s worth of statistics. He showed us most of it last year. Given that he had his big breakthrough and that the player we saw from last November onwards often seemed to be the best player on the ice, I think his case is heard.
Dach has reached his physical and tactical maturity, and we’re now seeing his true potential as a dominant NHL forward, something Hawks scouts saw in him in 2019. It just remains to be seen how dominant he can be night after night, and the 60+ point seasons that will come with it.
So he’ll be on our list, along with Guhle, Slaf, Xhekaj, Barron and even a certain Lias Andersson…
Once again this year, we’ll try to establish a coherent and defensible order of importance among the CH’s prospects by asking ourselves these questions: Which are the most likely to make the Habs a better team? Which are most likely to become the team’s most valuable players? For a more detailed explanation of how we compile hopefuls, I refer you to this article from 2021.
So, without further ado, let’s dive into our 2023 honorable mentions.
Oliver Kapanen | C, right-handed, 20 years old, 6’1, 179 lbs | Last ranking : Uncategorized
No, I don’t think I’m as big a Kapanen fan as Grant McKaag, who currently ranks him 4th among the club’s non-NHL prospects and sees him as a potential 2nd center in the best league in the world.
It’s true that he showed some interesting statistics in the Finnish Liiga (27 points in 55 games) at the age of 19, but as his country’s first center at the last WJC, Kapanen, his country’s captain, broke absolutely nothing offensively, even though he had the chance to play with an elite shooter in Joakim Kemell. In two years at this tournament, he has scored just five points in 12 games.
Habs’ prospect Oliver Kapanen’s goal today for Finland #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/Mwqh4jbj31
– Habs Fan TV (@HabsFanTV_) December 27, 2022
Tenacity, hustle, leadership, work ethic: these are the real calling cards of the Finn, who already plays a professional style of play, similar to Owen Beck’s, but with a little less talent and dynamism.
Kapanen has a pretty good chance of one day playing in the NHL, thanks to his work ethic and responsible style of play, but if he does, it will only be as a support player on a bottom-6 . He bears a striking resemblance to that famous right-handed 4th-three center that makes many NHL coaches happy…
Let’s just say that having the luxury of placing a prospect of Oliver Kapanen’s calibre in the honourable mentions already tells us a lot about the quality of the Habs’ prospect bank, which is undoubtedly still ranked around the top 10 in the NHL.
But why isn’t Kapanen more important to me for the CH, you ask? Simply because, with Suzuki, Dach, Beck and Mesar all available as right-handed centers, Kapanen isn’t exactly a rarity in the organization, and you can bet a few bucks that Hughes and Gorton have already placed Beck and Mesar (whom they drafted) ahead of Kapanen (whom Timmins and Bergevin drafted) in the club’s organization chart.
William Trudeau | DG, 20 years old, 6’1, 187 lbs | Latest ranking : Uncategorized
Few 20-year-old defensemen know the kind of season Trudeau had last year in the AHL. 27 points in 60 games and a +8 record – that’s no mean feat! No one saw this coming from this4th-round pick in 2021.
Trudeau may not be flashy, but he’s rock-solid defensively, as evidenced by his impressive +/- differential in junior and the AHL. He’s also capable of producing his fair share of points thanks to his efficiency and intelligence. He regularly makes good decisions on the ice and executes quickly and well.
The Laval #Rocket lost 5-1 last night to the Belleville #Senators. The defeat ended Laval’s streak of 15 consecutive home games without a regulation loss. It was also Belleville’s ninth win vs Laval this season.
Laval’s goal was scored by William Trudeau
⬇️⬇️#GoRocket #AHL pic.twitter.com/bYABzoes7D– Chris G (@ChrisHabs360) March 10, 2023
For fans of construction analogies, Trudeau’s ceiling may not be the highest, but his floor comes close to knee height. The problem with this is that the player’s progression curve is already coming to an end, and the 24-year-old Trudeau won’t be much different from the 20-year-old. But with what he did at 20 in the AHL, you’ve got to give him a good chance of breaking into an NHL line-up one day and establishing himself for a while on a third pair.
Of course, with organizational congestion still high on the left side of the defense, Trudeau’s use value isn’t that great for the CH, and for the time being, there’s no better plan than to continue his development in Laval.
But for various reasons, Matheson, Guhle and Xhekaj could be prone to further injury, and Harris is far from untouchable, as is Struble. Engstrom isn’t in America yet, and Hutson won’t arrive in town until next spring. If the stars align a little, Trudeau could have a chance to shine in the spotlight as early as this year.
If the Quebecer becomes the Rocket’s #1 defenseman this season – he already was on certain nights last year – with the whole new band of quality prospects expected to join him, he’ll open a lot of eyes in Montreal and elsewhere. Trudeau would be a top-15 player for many teams, let’s not lose sight of that…
Cayden Primeau | G, 23, 6’3, 203 lbs Last position: 7th
After staying in our top-10 since turning pro, it’s time to review Primeau’s importance to the Hughes and Gorton Canadiens, who just drafted no less than three goaltenders at the last amateur auction and are about to extend the contract of friendly, still-young and very effective Samuel Montembeault.
Still, it’s not a total disavowal of Primeau, for as the excellent Anthony Marcotte – perhaps the man who knows the Laval Rocket’s players best of all the observers – reminded us, had it not been for Primeau’s prowess, the Rocket wouldn’t have made the playoffs last year, and wouldn’t have enjoyed the unexpected playoff run of 2021-2022.
#Rocket Big glove save by Cayden Primeau @TheAHLReport @RocketSports #GoRocket pic.twitter.com/YQP3rRWn0c
– Chris G (@ChrisHabs360) February 29, 2020
There’s also the “Adin Hill factor”, when you realize that the likes of Hill, Binnington and Kuemper have won three of the last five Stanley Cups, it makes you start seriously reconsidering the overall importance of goaltending in teams’ NHL success.
Primeau will begin a healthy competition in Laval this year (if he passes the ballot) with young Jakub Dobes, and we’ll see what effect it has on him to have a youngster at his side for the first time when he’s in the veteran’s role.
The Habs may have to ballot Primeau as early as this fall if they don’t find a buyer for him in a trade. But the American has a guaranteed NHL contract until the end of the 2024-2025 season, and a team would really have to be in love with him and have a place for him in the NHL to acquire him considering his salary.
Jayden Struble | D, left-handed, 6’0, 194 lbs | Last ranking: honorable mention
We gave Jayden Struble a rather favorable review following his selection at No. 46 in 2019 in this annual ranking. We recall that, at the time, Trevor Timmins thought he bore a striking resemblance to a certain P.K. Subban. While Struble – 22 in September – continued to improve his defensive game last year at Northeastern, we still expected much more from him offensively, as he didn’t really progress at this level during his last three seasons in the university ranks. Strange, given that this was his main calling card when he was drafted. But there was also robustness:
Couple of big hits from the Laval Rocket, the 2nd hit coming from Jayden Struble. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/Nd7MNqSxJW
– Field hockey Junkie (@HockeyJunkieYT) March 24, 2023
Struble will undoubtedly return to Laval in the fall, having impressed Jean-François Houle with the overall quality of his play upon his arrival with the team last spring. Hoping that the injuries that slowed his development are now a thing of the past, it will be interesting to see where he fits in the Rocket’s blue-line hierarchy.
With the congestion on the left side of the defence continuing after the departures of Romanov and Edmundson and the arrival of veteran Matheson, Struble is one of those who could sooner or later be sacrificed by the organization. But there’s no hurry now that he’s under contract for the next two seasons.
Vinzenz Rohrer | C, AD, 18 years old, 5’10, 161 lbs | Last ranking: honorable mention
Even so, Rohrer, who is still only 18 (!), looked good enough for Austria at the last WCJ and still has time to make the offensive progress expected of him last year in the OHL with the mighty Ottawa 67s, the best club in the regular season. So we’ll continue to keep an eye on him, as a depth role is not out of the question for him in the future.
And so our honorable mentions come to an end here, although we can no doubt still spare a thought for Luke Tuch, CĂ©drick Guindon, Riley Kidney, Tyler Smilanic, Xavier Simoneau, Jared Davidson, Jakub Dobes and Nicolas Beaudin.
Out of the lot, one or two may yet break through…
We’ll be back next week with positions 15 to 13!