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A post-training-camp look at our top-15 prospects for the Habs

 Auteur: Sarah Jones
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A post-training-camp look at our top-15 prospects for the Habs
Credit: Getty Images

The season has begun and we can finally put behind us the Canadiens’ long and rather nightmarish training camp, which, in the end, didn’t teach us much… and which, because of the repeated title violence, even made us want to reform the NHL’s justice department!

What about the lineup? Not good.

The powerplay? Ishhhh.

The progression of prospects? Apart from Lane Hutson, Jakub Dobes and Oliver Kapanen, ouaffff….

So, without officially rearranging our top-15, today we’re going to take a look at some of the players and positions in the prospects hierarchy we’ve established as follows:

1. Juraj Slafkovsky
2. Ivan Demidov
3. Lane Hutson
4. David Reinbacher
5. Jacob Fowler
6. Michael Hage
7. Kaiden Guhle
8. Joshua Roy
9. Adam Engstrom
10. Arber Xhekaj
11. Logan Mailloux
12. Justin Barron
13. Cayden Primeau
14. Owen Beck
15. Jakub Dobes
Honorable mentions (Volokhin, Kapanen, F. Xhekaj, Mesar)

The top-3 would remain unchanged, but…

Two years ago, when I dared to put Lane Hutson in4th place in this countdown, just after he had been selected 62nd by the organization, many cried out: “A dwarf!”, “In front of Guhle? What nonsense!

The discourse had already changed quite a bit a year later, when I ranked him second, but even then, some still questioned his ability to adapt to the NHL’s more rugged game.

Then, no one was surprised to find him ranked3rd this summer, after two VERY convincing games at the very end of last season.

Training camp only confirmed the good things we think of Hutson, but the most interesting thing was to hear the Suzuki, Savard, Guhle and company dazzled by his exploits and seeing him as a truly special player.

That’s why this year’s rankings were so close, with only two small percentage points separating Hutson, Demidov and Slaf. At that point, statistically speaking, a bit like political polls, we’re entering the famous margin of error!

So, with the information we have at the moment, I’d have no problem putting any of these three prospects in first place: here we have three potential superstars. Three players destined to become the Canadiens’ annual MVPs.

Slafkovsky will officially be one of the graduates in our next rankings, but it will be interesting to see if we can establish a clear No. 1 between Demidov and Hutson next summer.

The fourth position is open!

David Reinbacher wasn’t having a bad camp before the serious left knee injury he suffered in that fateful game against the Maple Leafs’ C-team at the Bell Centre.

It’s not the same knee he injured at the start of last season in Kloten, but it’s still worrying that this seemingly trivial contact will keep him out of action for 5 to 6 months. Perhaps he wasn’t yet sufficiently accustomed to the narrower playing surface in Switzerland?

Before his injury, we saw the big, mobile defenseman, generally well positioned, intelligent and quick in his decisions, but still a little hesitant to carry the puck beyond the middle of the rink

In my book, just in terms of reading the game, positioning, mobility and execution, he was clearly ahead of Mailloux, if we were to compare the two…

But unfortunately, he didn’t have time to show us enough to leave us in no doubt as to his place in fourth place in our hierarchy.

Guhle (7th), who had not yet graduated, could very well be considered.

Fowler (5th), will have all the season Reinbacher won’t have to come up and make his mark.

Then there’s a certain Michael Hage, a smoker at the development camp in July and sensational in the first week of NCAA activity, who will have to be very seriously considered.

With doubts about Dach’s toughness/fragility, and now Patrick Laine’s even more uncertain long-term status in the organization, the selection of a 6’1 right-handed center/winger who skates like the wind and moves, passes and throws with the poetry of a Jack Eichel, is truly worth its weight in gold…

The “battle” is fiercer than ever in the third third

While there’s clearly a fairly small first third (1 to 3) and a second third (4 to 7) not much more populous, positions 8 to 15, to which we’ll add a few honorable mentions, form a group made up of several individuals who are still struggling to stand out from one another.

For the most part, and for a variety of reasons, they also struggled to stand out in the last camp.

Of the lot, only Dobes seems to have won unanimous approval. Here’s one we’ll be keeping an eye on in Laval, and who could very well be the Rocket’s MVP again this season.

A serious contender for the top-8 or even better next year? He just might be!

Kapanen has also earned high marks in most departments and fully deserves to remain in Montreal.

For his part, Engstrom has looked increasingly comfortable in the last few preseason games he’s played. Mobile, confident with the puck, intelligent. Slightly superior to Mailloux, he would retain his position ahead of the latter. The organization seems to hold him in high esteem, even allowing him to play on the “first unit” of the powerplay in recent games in place of the popular Ontarian…

As for Roy and Mailloux, their case is heard. They were quite ordinary.

Xhekaj could hardly do himself justice for reasons we all know, so there’s no questioning his importance to the team. But we’d now like to see significant progress in his zone and in his passing game…

Barron was good in general, better than Mailloux, without being transcendent. But in his case, we’d just like to see consistency, not five games of fireworks followed by 10 games of couci-couça.

Beck and Primeau’s performance was on a par with theirs. There’s nothing to worry about and we’re expecting good seasons from them in their respective roles in Laval and Montreal.

After Reinbacher in Switzerland, Demidov in Russia…

” Do you like Demidov’s playing time and fate in Russia?

A rhetorical question if ever there was one…

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any possibility of an agreement between the two organizations to get Ivan Demidov out of St. Petersburg at present, and we don’t expect any changes on that front.

That said, after Reinbacher’s near-loss year in Switzerland in 23-24, and Demidov’s less-than-optimal development year in Russia, we’ll have to seriously consider developing the organization’s next top pick as quickly as possible in the Montreal fold, or at the very least in North America with plenty of playing time, as is the case with Hage.

It worked out very well with Slafkovsky under the new administration, and it’s just a shame that this isn’t the case with Demidov, especially as the top pick was even open to playing in Laval if need be.

Of course, with the Russian, one could argue that the risk was worth it.

But as for Reinbacher, we’re still amazed that the disparaging remarks of a few idiots on social networks could have weighed so heavily in the decision to develop him at Kloten last year.

Of course, there’s been a bit of bad luck in the case of the Swiss so far, we couldn’t foresee everything, but the management must still have learned a few lessons from this decision…

I look forward to chatting with you on Facebook and Twitter in a respectful manner worthy of a civilized society!

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