Canadiens Prospects Praise Habs New-Look Development Team

The Montreal Canadiens recently made major adjustments to their developmental process, and their prospects have loved the impact it’s had on their game.

When Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes were brought on for the roles of Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations and General Manager, one of their main tasks was to revamp the Montreal Canadiens’ developmental department.

Since taking over, the Canadiens have created three distinct departments which help the organization ensure the optimal development of their youngsters: Player Development, Hockey Development and Hockey Analytics.

By adding to their staff and breaking each department down in a manner that allows each entity to naturally overlap with the other, the Canadiens have fleshed out a support system for their prospects that is set up for success.

Player Development

Player Development, headed by Ramage and Bouillion, plays a more intricate role of keeping in touch with players on a day-to-day basis; supporting their prospects as both hockey players and people along the way.

“I talk to Rob Ramage quite a bit. He texts me after almost every game and we talk a bit about my game’ said Canadiens prospect Riley Kidney in terms of the involvement of Ramage in his day-to-day. “It’s a whole lot easier when you have that type of support. That’s helped me.”

Kidney isn’t the only player that was quick to praise the involvement of Ramage, as Lane Hutson was also very appreciative of the more implicit, personal touch that Ramage brings.

“I’ve had some conversations with Rob Ramage, he comes by sometimes to watch my games and we chat,” said Hutson regarding Ramage’s presence. “It feels good when they come to see you and it helps to bounce ideas off him about my game.”

Ramage and Bouillon remain very engaged with the day-to-day of each and keep in touch on a regular basis, but, this year, they have new allies when it comes to helping these youngsters further hone their skills.

Hockey Development

When the Canadiens announced the hiring of Adam Nicholas for the role of Director of Hockey Development, many were confused regarding the differences between his role and that of Ramage.

Nicholas made a career out of helping young hockey players further refine their hockey skills, skating ability and in-game thought process under his company, Stride Envy.

He’s since brought his knowledge to the Canadiens and has had a direct impact with their youngsters dating back to last summer’s Development Camp.

“He helped us work on finding and attacking pockets of open space. When I see open space, I attack it now and try to make a play,” said Hutson regarding what he took away from working with Adam Nicholas at Development Camp. “I’ve been able to transition pucks really quickly and generate a lot of my offence off the rush. It’s worked well for my team so far.”

When the Canadiens’ prospects head off to their respective leagues, Nicholas has also been hard at work preparing personalized isolated-shift reviews for the club’s youngsters; helping them relive their most recent games and dissecting things like positioning, decision-making and gap control.

It’s certainly been a well-received change.

“He sends me videos, where he talks and goes through the play, explaining what I could do better, but also recognizing when we do the right play. Little videos like that help me round out my game and I try to put it into action in my next game,” said Kidney regarding Nicholas’ impact on his game. “In the videos he’d send me, he encourages me to attack the net more often. He wants me to bring it to the middle, the danger areas, because all the dangerous stuff in hockey happens in the middle of the ice. He’s tried to make me have more of an attacking mindset and bring the puck to the net more often.”

Coming over from Europe, Filip Mesar has been working on adapting to the North-American brand of hockey and praised the work of Nicholas in helping him along in that process. Nicholas routinely sends Canadiens prospects a multitude of isolated shift clips on a regular basis that he dissects with them to better improve their decision-making and positioning in a game.

“He just sends me my shifts and then we’d talk about it. We’d watch it and then he’d stop it and he would ask me what I could do better here. He tells me what he thinks could be the best thing to do,” said Mesar regarding the depth of his conversations with Nicholas. “It really helps me, and I’m so glad to have that kind of coach with so much energy.”

Although Nicholas has been putting Canadiens Video Analyst, Mario Leblanc, to work with all the videos he’s sending out to prospects, he’s not simply just a video coach.

He routinely attends Montreal Canadiens and Laval Rocket practices as well, helping players refine certain aspects of their game in one-on-one or group sessions.

“He’ll send us videos to help us on the power play, making us look at the footwork of the defensive player to help us better anticipate plays,” said William Trudeau about Nicholas’ involvement during the season. “He also drops by pretty regularly in Laval. We work on things after practice, improving our movements and working on our mobility. He’s been awesome.”

Lasting Impact

Every single prospect interviewed polled on the subject felt that they owed a lot of their growth this season to the changes the Montreal Canadiens made from a developmental standpoint.

Newer prospects like Hutson and Mesar were blown away by the level of support and information they were afforded, so far away from Montreal. Meanwhile, prospects that were around prior to the 2022 NHL Draft felt that the Canadiens fleshing out their developmental departments with highly qualified staff, like Olympian Marie-Philip Poulin, has helped them become more complete hockey players in the process.

With the Habs prospects benefiting from these extra resources and hockey minds, many have gone on to have career years in their respective leagues this summer.

Most of those prospects credit the work of the Canadiens’ developmental staff as a whole in keeping them grounded and helping them focus on the smaller details of their games; making a big difference on the ice.

It seems, at least early on, that this could very well be the start of something new.