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Canadiens Checklist: State Of The Rebuild – Forward Prospects

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Montreal Canadiens prospect Owen Beck Habs

Now that the Montreal Canadiens have completed their second complete rebuild season, it’s time to take a closer look at where the organization stands in terms of its long-term plans.

This series will evaluate several categories, including current NHL talent, prospect value, draft capital, trades, coaching, contracts, and management.

State Of The Montreal Canadiens Rebuild Series – Published

Today we will examine the state of the forward prospects in the organization.

Montreal Canadiens Forward Prospects Caveat

As we pointed out when introducing the series, the Montreal Canadiens have already graduated many key prospects. It’s one of the reasons the Habs are among the youngest teams in the NHL.

Both Juraj Slafkovsky and Joshua Roy have established themselves as important members of the forward core, which mitigates much of the potential among the remaining players.

Beck Leads The Charge

Beyond Roy and Slafkovsky, there’s genuinely very little to be excited about when it comes to players who project to be game-changers.

Owen Beck represents the team’s best hope regarding a player who might earn a roster spot at camp next season. The cerebral centre improved his overall scoring following his trade to the Saginaw Spirit, going from 1.2 points per game with his former team, the Peterborough Petes, all the way to 1.6 points per game with his new club.

This should quelch much of the concern surrounding his scoring pace in the OHL, as it showed that Beck can certainly produce if he’s put in a position to do so. Beck has been held scoreless in the last four Spirit playoff games, but he’s still produced 10 points in 11 games.

Beck projects as a player who could eventually pressure Jake Evans, taking over as the fourth-line pivot while absorbing important special teams minutes. Once he settles into his NHL position, there are decent odds Beck will continue to slowly, yet surely, climb the depth ladder.

In the meantime, if Beck cannot force his way into the NHL lineup there will surely be a healthy amount of minutes available in the AHL, with the Laval Rocket.

Mesar’s Value

Filip Mesar’s development in the OHL has gone a little slower than expected, especially when we consider he played two seasons of professional hockey in Slovakia before heading to Kitchener.

He improved his scoring rate slightly this season, pushing it beyond one point per game (1.15 ppg), but there was still a lot left to desire when watching him ply his trade for the Rangers.

His playmaking is top-notch, and his offensive awareness is elite, but he does tend to shy away from heading to high-danger scoring areas, and he still defers to his teammates when it comes to his own shooting opportunities. His shot rate did go up in the playoffs, but unfortunately, it only led to one goal in 24 games.

On that note, he also produced 15 assists in that stretch, leading to a very encouraging playoff scoreline of one goal and 15 assists in just 10 games.

The issue for Mesar is that his skill set, which involves exploiting open ice and mistakes made by opponents, won’t necessarily translate quickly to the professional level. That’s not to say he won’t ever make his way to the NHL, but I would suggest a year or two in the AHL would be necessary to allow him to acclimatize to the speed and lack of space involved in North American professional hockey.

Best Of The Rest

There are a few other prospects who hold legitimate potential, but the list dries up rather quickly.

Florian Xhekaj has emerged as a very interesting player who has the ideal skill set to play in the bottom six. He’s perhaps even more aggressive than his brother, Arber. More importantly, he scored a bevy of different goals in the OHL this season while almost tripling his production rate, including end-to-end highlight reel plays.

We’ll keep a close eye on his development, but like Mesar, Xhekaj will need some time in the AHL to adjust.

Cedrick Guindon had another fairly solid season with Owen Sound in the OHL, earning 26 goals and 31 assists in 68 games, but we once again saw his production fade down the stretch, a recurring issue with the Franco-Ontarian.

Oliver Kapanen enjoyed a fantastic showing in the SM-liiga playoffs, scoring seven goals and seven assists in 13 games with Kalpa. It’s an encouraging sign for a prospect that has always projected as a defensive specialist, but we also have to keep in mind he’s 20 years old, an uptick in production wasn’t just to be expected, it was necessary to keep him in the top Montreal Canadiens prospects conversation.

Luke Tuch and Sean Farrell should play important roles for the Laval Rocket next season, but like most other prospects on our list, they’ll need much more experience before we can suggest they’re ready for NHL action.

Riley Kidney and Jared Davidson had relatively quiet rookie seasons in the AHL. Some of it was due to usage, but there were certainly stretches in which Kidney looked overwhelmed by the heightened level of opposition he had to face.

Montreal Canadiens Brass Tacks

Simply put, forward prospects are an organizational weakness for the Montreal Canadiens.

With that in mind, if you add Roy and Slafkovsky to the mix, you could suggest the team is in good shape, but if we’re being perfectly honest, they’ve already reached the level where we can consider them NHL talent.

That’s good news for the rebuild, but bad news for the state of the forwards in the prospect pool.

Montreal Canadiens State Of The Rebuild Grade – Forward Prospects

Beck, Mesar, and Xhekaj have a decent chance to etch out a spot on an NHL roster eventually, but for now, we must admit there’s very little high-end talent in the forward prospect pipeline.

Grade: 2/10*

Fortunately, the Montreal Canadiens will have an opportunity to address the glaring weakness this summer, as they are set to be given yet another top-10 pick.

The team has mostly focused on adding defensive talent to the mix recently, which means they are well aware they desperately need to add a game-changing forward prospect to the group.

*If the Habs can put their hands on someone like Tij Iginla or Cayden Lindstrom, the outlook for the forward prospect group would improve significantly, as they’d instantly become the best forward prospect in the organization.

MUST READ: Cayden Lindstrom A Prime Draft Target For The Montreal Canadiens

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Rick A Robinson

Find out what the number one pick wants 5 pick. Harris and Koviciviac

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Dana

Agreed, outside of Roy (slav now has 2 entire nhl seasons so not a prospect) the pipeline is thin of high end guys. Beck is as you describe and I think he eventually is 3C but a very useful bottom 6 guy with a lot of desirable attributes that differentiate him from other bottom 6 guys on the roster or looking to be.

The deputy will likely be fourth line but maybe bottom 6 and will provide a presence, with decent skill. It’s a huge bonus when your fourth line can contribute offensively more than those they are playing against. Looking forward to seeing Florian in Laval next year. I expect him to be heavier next season as he grew a lot last year and will likely fill out some this year.

I only envision 2 top 6 jobs available over the next couple of years and we likely fill 1 at the draft table this year when that prospect is ready. The other could be a trade, a free agent, a draftee next year or this? That’s why I’m not losing sleep over the situation. It’s not a strength as 2/10 would indicate but I can see how Hughes can manage it with a few years to resolve it. We have lots of contracts that restrict or at least impede how quickly Hughes gets there.

I thought iginla looked pretty good today on team Canada.

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Marc

Yes I agree with everything but I am not sold on Iginla if we draft 5-6 . I would trade the jets pick to be sure to draft one of Demidov or Lidstrom. Even Levshunov asset wise would be better than reaching for Iginla

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john harmsworth

Snagging Lindstrom or Iginla at the draft would likely end up with either apprenticing on the 2nd line wing while Roy is pushed down to the 3rd line and subbing up as required for injuries. With Dach back that makes us a much better offensive team. In fact, with Dach back our top 6 doesn’t look too bad at all. The weakness there is that Dach needs somebody to help out on draws, which limits our flexibility up front. Maybe Beck could play Dach’s wing or best of all, Dach can dial in his faceoff skills. Then ,with the addition of a little scoring skill up front we start to look like a real contender If we don’t make the playoffs next year I’m ok with that-if we acquire speed, size and skill!

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Dana

I’m thinking that the team would be so good if Roy was a legitimate third line player on it as I think he has second line skill. I suspect you’re right John that our first first rounder this year will be given every opportunity to play top 6 eventually but it may take a year. I see today that Demidov hurt his knee again recently. Cole Eiserman has 5 goals and an assist at the U18 world championships in only 2 games. Iggy has 2+1 Catton and Lindstrom are both injured and not playing , unfortunately

Roy Newhook and Beck is what I project as our third line of the future. I watched the 93 cup final clinching game last night (Boston Pizza had it on during dinner )and it occurred to me that Beck has a lot of Carboneau in his game. Beck is a very good skater like Newhook. That would be a good second line in a lot of clubs. But as you say.Dach either needs to get better in the dot or another solution will be required.

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Pierre B.

The leading candidates for our top-6 are all young players several years away from their prime. Suzuki (24), Caufield (23), Slafkovsky (20), Dach (23), Newhook (23), Roy (20) should all be expected to improve. For next season, we already have too many forwards for the remaining positions. Gallagher and Anderson are signed for another 3 seasons; but all the others have only one season left; Ylönen is a pending RFA now. The current forward prospects are thus more likely to be fighting for the bottom-6 positions, and only toward the end of next season. There are already enough prospects in the pipeline to expect that a few NHLer will emerge in due time. The author’s biggest omission could be Heineman, but I’d suggest to also keep an eye on Simoneau, 183 lbs on a 5’6″ frame mean a strong player with a lower center of gravity, he could surprise many.
The 2/10 grade for the forward prospects is partly offset by the CH 6 young forwards, and partly by the draft capital (9/10 grade). There are four 1st-round pick in the next two drafts. Expectations: The 2024 MTL 1st-round pick will be a promising forward who will eventually push one of the current top-6 player on the 3rd-line by 2026-2027 season. While many fans hope that some trade assets (e.g. a defensemen with NHL experience other than Matheson, Guhle and Xhekaj; the 2024 WPG 1st; an older prospect) will be converted in another top-6 forward on or just ahead of the 2024 draft, even just another high-end middle-6 forward should alleviate any concern with respect with the forward prospect pipeline .

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peter

Mesar looked good at training camp so perhaps his game translates better at a higher level. Beck is more likely to replace Dvorak than Evans.

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Bill

2/10 is way too harsh! I would say 5 or 4 at the very least. There are some decent forward prospects even if none are likely to be in top-6. They will add to the top-6 via trade and their top-10 pick so nothing to worry about here.

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Marc Dumont

I hear what you’re saying, but given they’ve had two very important drafts where they had top 5 picks, the lack of game-changing prospects is a significant issue in my opinion. Every team has decent depth options among prospects.

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