Kaiden Guhle is one of the best defensive defenders on the circuit

The Montreal Canadiens have several interesting prospects, mainly on defense.

Lane Hutson and David Reinbacher come to mind, but Logan Mailloux should not be forgotten.

And that’s without mentioning the young defensemen already established with the Habs: Arber Xhekaj, Jordan Harris and especially Kaiden Guhle.

Since his arrival with the big team, Guhle has established himself as a mature defenseman who is very responsible in his own zone.

It’s rare to see a young defenseman make the leap from Canadian junior to the NHL with little or no problem.

What’s a little more worrying is the injury situation, as he’s had quite a history of injuries since his junior days.

Nevertheless, he’s probably the team’s best defensive defenseman, even ahead of David Savard.

The Quebec defender has always been excellent defensively, but he has slowed down of late, and his main role at the moment is that of mentor to the youngsters.

What’s more, the fact that Guhle is only 22 years old makes it all the more likely that he’ll be useful to the Tricolore in the future.

Harman Dayal recently wrote an article for The Athletic, in which he profiled the NHL’s top defensive defensemen.

He mentioned Guhle in the 11 defensemen following his top-20:

Respect Kaiden Guhle

https://t.co/KkegmAMQic pic.twitter.com/nwOxplr5mC

– /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) April 4, 2024

Still, he was part of a group that included Colton Parayko, Miro Heiskanen, Devon Toews and Adam Pelech.

Personally, I saw him higher than that on this list, but I noticed the presence of Parayko and Pelech in the honorable mentions and I don’t see how he could be any higher. Pelech and Parayko are two defensive-minded defensemen who are among the NHL’s elite, in my opinion.

Still, it’s a great honor for the Habs’ 22-year-old defenseman.

In his article, however, Dayal used a few specific criteria to draw up this list.

• 40 games played minimum
• Top-4 defenseman
• Below-average five-on-five goals-against rate

Preventing goals is the ultimate goal of defensive defenders, and these are excellent criteria that Dayal used.

To my surprise, even though I knew they were good defensively, Radko Gudas (Anaheim Ducks) and Alex Vlasic (Chicago Blackhawks) are the top two in this ranking.

As we know, the Tricolore has a surplus of defensemen, and there’s a good chance the team will trade one of its defensemen this summer to make room for the youngsters coming through.

Even if Savard plays very responsible hockey, especially in his zone, it’s vital that the Tricolore doesn’t trade Guhle.

It’s hard to find a comparison for Guhle in the history of the Habs, but Colton Parayko or Jake Muzzin might be good comparisons.

The closest comparison to Guhle among former Habs players is Shea Weber, without having as good an offensive game, even though Guhle does very well with the puck.

And I’ll always remember Weber’s great usefulness in the 2021 series. His defensive game, despite the fact that he was banged up from a number of injuries and was 35 years old, was extremely important in games like the Toronto Maple Leafs.

With Phillip Danault up front, Weber at the blue line and Carey Price in net, it was very difficult to score against the Habs.

If Guhle could possibly become as important as Weber, who will be the next Danault and the next Price?

Overtime

In tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Kaiden Guhle left the game after being checked by Nikita Kucherov. The Tricolore announced at the second intermission that the young defenseman would not return to action tonight.