Canadiens Must Keep A Close Eye On The Surging Laval Rocket

With fewer than 30 games left in the schedule, the Montreal Canadiens AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket, are sitting atop of the league standings.

And while the NHL club did not pilfer the talent as often as previous years, but as per tradition, there was still a heavy number of injuries and call-ups that complicated life for head coach Pascal Vincent.

Don’t forget, while Jakub Dobes entered the NHL with the ferocity of a tiger in oestrus, the Rocket lost their starting goaltender in exchange for an NHL backup that was void of confidence. 11 starts later, Cayden Primeau is sporting a sparkling 10-1 record, as well as a very healthy .910 save percentage, the same Dobes had at the time of his promotion to the Canadiens. The best Canadian sportsbooks are certainly noticing.

A 5-0 loss to the Belleville Senators on Wednesday was a reality check, but overall, the Rocket has shown fantastic mettle in the face of adversity, and that’s an incredibly encouraging sign, given that many of the team’s top players were drafted by the Habs. Of the top six drafted point-getters, the Canadiens drafted five of them, unlike last year, where the top five point producers were mostly cast-offs from other franchises, except for defenceman Logan Mailloux.

In other words, players like Mailloux, Jared Davidson, Adam Engstrom, Owen Beck, and Joshua Roy leading the charge is exactly what a rebuilding team wants to see.

Logan Mailloux scores his second NHL goal to cut the Kings lead to just one. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/Df3A9bphZX

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) February 6, 2025

A (Mostly) Stable Farm System

That’s not to say the aforementioned players are necessarily going to end up on the Montreal Canadiens top line, but at the very least, the Habs will not have to spend quality assets to fill up the middle of the lineup, a boon that most teams have enjoyed in past decades, but is still a foreign concept given the Canadiens haven’t had a detailed and specific development plan in place for the majority of their existence.

They’re playing catch-up, but thanks to a focused draft strategy and a heavy investment in development programs, we’re starting to see the fruit of Kent Hughes’ labour.

Beyond playing well in the AHL, the players must perform from the very moment they get the call from the Canadiens, and thanks to Beck, Mailloux, and Dobes, we can safely say there hasn’t been an unreasonable acclimatization period whenever an AHL player is inserted into an NHL lineup.

A big save by Jakub Dobes during a Wild 2v1. pic.twitter.com/fodWmczTKN

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 31, 2025

While developing properly is always the most important aspect of any player’s time in the AHL, there’s also the matter of learning how to win. We tend to overlook this factor in hockey, but we’ve seen the impact of playing for a losing team for an extended period of time. Ryan O’Reilly declared he lost his love for the sport while playing in Buffalo, a nice reminder that tanking brings quality players to an organization, but it also seeds frustration that will eventually rise to the surface.

By learning how to win in the AHL, the next crop of Canadiens prospects will have crucial experience under their belt, the type of crucial experience that was nowhere to be found in previous decades.

With the NHL Trade Deadline looming, there are decent odds the Habs will end up trading one or several of their players on expiring contracts, and that will likely necessitate more call-ups from the AHL. There’s no avoiding it, but Canadiens management would be wise to avoid gutting their farm team just to acquire a few extra mid-round picks at the deadline.

Fortunately, by the time the Canadiens are set to end their regular season, the Rocket will be gearing up for a run at the Calder Cup, connoting that Vincent should receive some important reinforcements when he needs them most, the polar opposite of what he deals with throughout the season.