By JD Lagrange – Since the Reset of 2018, the Canadiens have drafted 49 prospects. They have signed others (like Arber Xhekaj) and they currently have 11 more picks for the upcoming 2023 NHL Draft. Some of those young men, like Jayden Struble and Sean Farrell, are just starting to join the Canadiens. Others like Logan Mailloux, Joshua Roy and Jared Davidson (just to name a few) will be making the jump next season.
Some Canadiens’ fans, ignoring the fact that the team’s prospect pool is getting saturated, want to see them continue accumulating picks and prospects. But that is not sustainable, or even feasible. And that’s only one of the reasons why trading for Pierre-Luc Dubois, instead of waiting for him to become a pending UFA, makes more sense.
Here’s an example. Rafaël Harvey-Pinard is having his breakthrough moment. Many Habs’ fans see him in the lineup straight from camp next season. It’s pretty easy to see why they would think that. [INSERT PRODUCTION HERE] But right now, he’s producing while playing on the Canadiens’ top line. That’s not sustainable when everyone is healthy as his ice time, and the quality of his linemates, won’t be the same. In fact, he might even be hard pressed to keep a role in the middle-six forwards group. How is that going to affect his production?
Where do they play?
GOALTENDING
I think it’s pretty clear where Carey Price‘s injuries have taken him. There’s still too much money left on his contract for him to even considering retiring, and he will collect his disability insurance… as he should.
Jake Allen was brought in by previous management to be Carey Price’s backup if you recall. He has never been able to carry (no pun intended) the load as a starter.
Some fans are drooling over Samuel Montembeault. I personally can’t figure out why. He is, at very best, a backup goalie at this level and having played the position for years myself, I just don’t see him take the next step.
The closest to being NHL-ready with the most upside remains Cayden Primeau. But how patient can the Habs’ be, particularly that he will have to clear waivers next year? Something occurred to me the other day. Is it possible that he was showcased to the Flyers? His father, Keith, played in Philly for the last six years of his career. Keith still has strong ties in Philly, as he is the owner of a franchise of Bain’s Deli in Philadelphia. And Carter Hart is rumoured to be available…
Jakub Dobes just finished his sophomore year with Ohio State University in the NCAA, where he had very good statistics. He freshly signed his ELC and will be joining the Laval Rocket.
Frederik Dichow only played 18 games all season in Europe.
Rounding up the goaltending prospects are Emmett Croteau who is in the USHL and Joe Vrbetic who played mostly in Trois-Rivières in the ECHL.
The worse part is that none of them are, at this point, clear number one goaltenders at the NHL level. The goaltending position is in limbo and Kent Hughes might address that this summer… You don’t want to be caught like the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs, with a team ready to contend but unable to find suitable goaltending.
DEFENSE
The clutter on defense is real, both in quantity and in quality. Have a look for yourself.
| Mike Matheson | Arber Xhekaj | William Trudeau |
| Joel Edmundson | Jordan Harris | Mattias Norlinder |
| David Savard | Chris Wideman | Jayden Struble |
| Kaiden Guhle | Johnathan Kovacevic | Gianni Fairbrother |
| Justin Barron | Logan Mailloux |
Lane Hutson, Adam Engström, Miguël Tourigny, Petteri Nurmi, Dmitri Kostenko and Daniil Sobolev round up some of the team’s best defense prospects. Others like Corey Schueneman, Otto Leskinen, Frédéric Allard, Nicolas Beaudin and Madison Bowey stand little to no chance to beat any of the names above them.
Mailloux has a contract in hand and according to Player Development coach Francis Bouillon, he is the team’s prospect the closest to being NHL-ready. He still needs to be cleared by the NHL to play in the league but with his immaculate behaviour, it should be a given.
The team is very heavy on left-handed defensemen, both in numbers and quality, but it’s not as deep on the right side. When David Savard is your number one RD… it’s an issue, and I mean no disrespect to David. And I’ve explained before why playing defensemen on their wrong side is not the right thing to do (amongst other things), so I won’t get into that again.
FORWARDS
Pending UFAs Jonathan Drouin and Sean Monahan will be gone. As will Paul Byron, off the LTIR’s books.
Here’s the list of the most prominent Habs and prospects at the forward position. Don’t worry about the positions as much as at the numbers, quality and status. The team has several centers playing the wing, and wingers pretty much can all play on the left or the right.
| Cole Caufield | Nick Suzuki | Josh Anderson |
| Mike Hoffman | Kirby Dach | Brendan Gallagher |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | Christian Dvorak | Joel Armia |
| Denis Gurianov | Jake Evans | Jesse Ylönen |
| Rafaël Harvey-Pinard | Sean Farrell | Joshua Roy |
| Michael Pezzetta | Jan Mysak | Filip Mesar |
| Rem Pitlick | Xavier Simoneau | Riley Kidney |
| Emil Heineman |
Jared Davidson (finished his last year in junior), Oliver Kapanen, Rhett Pitlick, Luke Tuch and Cedrick Guindon round up the team’s top prospects at the forward positions who have yet to sign their contracts.
As you can see, there’s a cluster, particularly on defense but also at the forwards position. And that is only one of the numerous reasons why, if the Canadiens want to acquire Pierre-Luc Dubois, a trade makes a lot of sense. And as we can all see, they also have assets to trade for a goaltender, whether it’d be Carter Hart or someone else.
