The Canadiens rookie tournament always brings a lot of hope. We often see players freshly drafted a few months earlier for the first time and we are curious to see the progress of their elders, those who offer the greatest promise.
It’s a time of the season where we sometimes tend to overestimate the organization’s hopes and the most optimistic sometimes even wonder if there will be enough room within the roster to accommodate so much talent.
Let’s take the top 10 Canadian prospects of the last ten years. We chose lists at random, but representative of the general consensus. We have underlined in bold the names of the players who had an impact with the Canadiens or elsewhere, that is to say a first or second line player, a top 4 defenseman or a number one goalie.
In 2014, we believed we had found replacements for Andrei Markov, Alexei Emelin and company in two first-round picks, Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi. They have received a lot of media coverage over the years. Beaulieu and Tinordi are still in the NHL a decade later, but in a modest role elsewhere.
Nikita Scherbak and Michael McCarron made the team’s list of top prospects for one reason: They were first-round picks. However, a prospect drafted after 25th overall has little more chance of breaking through than a second-round pick, for example. Their selection rank explains why they were ahead of Lehkonen, for example, who remained in Europe three years after being drafted by the team, therefore absent from the spotlight.
Mikhail Sergachev, 9th overall pick in 2016, was the only player drafted higher than 25th between 2013 and 2017. This may partly explain why so few prospects broke through between 2014 and 2017. Marc Bergevin still regrets this exchange Today.
A lot of hope was pinned on the 2017 vintage. First pick Ryan Poehling shone at the World Junior Championship a few years after the draft, defenseman Josh Brook exploded with 75 points in 59 games in his final year in Moose Jaw, Cayden Primeau dominated in the NCAA and Cale Fleury reached the NHL quickly. It was a mirage. Brook was arguably the organization’s most overrated prospect of the last decade. We must be wary of big productions from young players in their fourth season in the junior ranks.
There is an improvement starting in 2018. This period coincides with an increasing number of higher choices, in a reset period, and a greater number of choices in general.
The Canadian was drafted five times in the top 16 between 2018 and 2023, including three times in the top 5, compared to twice in the previous six vintages. He also acquired three players drafted in the top 16 in recent seasons, Nick Suzuki, Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook.
Without losing our critical spirit, we can foresee the future with more optimism than six or seven years ago, but by keeping in mind these examples of young people who seemed sure at the start of their career to succeed in a great career.
The Canadian deployed his training on Friday during morning training in preparation for the first match of the junior tournament in Buffalo, presented on the rds.ca website from 7 p.m.
We can see the hierarchical status of each person, which will change if necessary depending on performance throughout the competition.
Thus Owen Beck finds himself in the center of the first trio, between Emil Heineman on the left and Joshua Roy on the right. Sean Farrell makes up the second left winger, with Riley Kidney at center and Filip Mesar employed on the right.
Xavier Simoneau, Jan Mysak, Cédric Guindon, Florian Xhekaj, Jared Davidson and the giant John Parker-Jones complete the last two trios.
On defense, 2023 first pick David Reinbacher will have the privilege of playing in the first pair with William Trudeau, a regular with the Laval Rocket last year. Logan Mailloux finds himself in the second pair with Christopher Ortiz, 22, a former Baie-Comeau Drakkar hired this summer to add a little depth to the Laval Rocket. In principle, he should end up with the Trois-Rivières Lions, in the ECHL, where he played the last two seasons. Ortiz appears to be replacing Jayden Struble, who was absent from morning practice but able to return to the club by the end of the day Friday. Stanislav Demin and Miguel Tourigny complete the lineup and goalkeeper Jakub Dobes will be the starting goalkeeper, assisted by Quentin Miller
1- Jakob Pelletier gained muscle mass in order to establish himself with the Calgary Flames. Katherine Harvey-Pinard tells us about her summer training.
2- Like Devon Levi, Joshua Fleming wants to confuse the skeptics during the rookie tournament. Guillaume Lefrançois spoke with this Montreal goaltender invited by the Buffalo Sabres.
3- One of CH’s best prospects in front of the net, Jakub Dobes, was four years old when Carey Price was drafted by Montreal in 2005. He can’t wait to meet his idol, says Simon-Olivier Lorange.
