2023-24 NHL Prospect Pool Overview: Montreal Canadiens

Lane Hutson, Filip Mesar and Owen Beck are just part of an elite Montreal Canadiens prospect pool. Prospect expert Tony Ferrari zooms in tight on their pipeline.

Tony Ferrari continues to analyze each team’s prospect pool during the NHL off-season, with the Montreal Canadiens next up.

In this series, Tony Ferrari digs into each team’s strengths and weaknesses, their latest draft class, where their positional depth chart stands, and who could be next in line for a shot at the NHL. Note that a player who no longer holds rookie eligibility in the NHL is considered graduated and no longer considered a prospect for the purposes of these exercises unless mentioned otherwise.

After reaching the Stanley Cup final in 2021, the Canadiens have been in full rebuild mode as the cornerstones of that run have aged out and all but retired from the game of hockey. The Canadiens are in a new era led by Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Kirby Dach, along with a plethora of young talented players brought in by executive vice president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and GM Kent Hughes.

They had the first overall selection in the 2022 NHL draft, selecting Juraj Slafkovsky to join the framework of what should be a competitive team in a few years. The 6-foot-3 winger, unfortunately, had his rookie season cut short by injury, limiting him to just 39 games. While he never really seemed to get his game going at the NHL level, there were flashes of what he could be. Slafkovsky is a powerful winger who can work off the wall and make skilled plays as he rotates into space. He is a playmaker with great vision, but his goal-scoring shouldn’t be discounted. He can absolutely rip a puck.

Montreal's prospect forwards have a good variety of skill sets. Owen Beck is usually the first player brought up by fans because it's not expected to be long before he gets NHL playing time. He was an emergency call-up last year by the Canadiens and made his NHL debut, and while he looked a step behind, he was smart and made good decisions in just over nine minutes of action. Beck plays a safe, straight-ahead game with good habits at both ends of the ice. He lacks the dynamism and upside of a player who can play in the top six consistently, but he projects fairly safely as a third-line center.

Filip Mesar is a high-pace, high-motor winger who is a relentless battler along the boards and a blur through the neutral zone. Mesar played with a Kitchener Rangers team that never really figured out their mix, and he was often one of their better players. This upcoming season, he is expected to play for Laval in the AHL, which will suit his style of play a bit better. Mesar will be a headache for defenders as he can wreak havoc with speed and tenacity. The offensive production may be delayed as he needs to mature physically a bit still, but if he keeps doing the right things on the ice as he always has, the points will come.

The Canadiens have strong depth on offense, with players like Sean Farrell, Emil Heineman and Oliver Kapanen progressing toward NHL roles. Farrell found his way into six NHL games and showed his quickness and playmaking, but with so many injuries to the Canadiens' skilled players late in the year, he wasn’t able to put up a ton of points. Heineman hit the ground running in Laval, joining the team late in the year and scoring seven goals in his first seven games with the club. He has a big shot and will get involved physically, making him an excellent middle-six scoring option for Montreal. Kapanen is an intelligent defensive center who took a solid step offensively last year in the Liiga. He will look to take another this year with KalPa before likely signing in North America after his Liiga season is over.

On the back end, the Habs have a number of notable prospects, including this year’s top selection, David Reinbacher, but it would be criminal to start anywhere other than with the most dynamic blueline prospect in hockey, Lane Hutson. The human highlight reel is an elite skater with a cerebral mindset and the offensive intuition of a high-end forward. He is generously listed at 5-foot-10, and his defensive play isn’t always as clean as you’d like it to be, but he has improved his positioning and begun to use his skating to his strength. Hutson is one of the most exciting prospects in hockey, and he should be one of the favorites to win the Hobey Baker in what will likely be his final year in the NCAA with Boston University.

While his first full AHL season didn’t go quite as well as he hoped, Mattias Norlinder is a highly skilled offensive defenseman. He is excellent on the breakout, using his four-way mobility to evade pressure and move pucks quickly. Offensively, he is an active mover at the blueline, going east to west with the puck to find passing lanes. The young Swede will look to take a big step this year.

Logan Mailloux is a divisive player because of his conviction in a Swedish court. It made his 2021 NHL draft selection in the first round just months later a questionable decision, to say the least. Mailloux is a physically gifted player with the size and skating ability valued in defenders. His shot is excellent, which is why he put up 25 goals from the back end this year. With that said, he put up 53 points in 59 games in the OHL this past season, which looks great on the surface but isn’t what some would expect from an offensive blueliner in his age-19 season. It’s especially concerning because it was so reliant on him scoring goals, something that won’t be as easy to do at the pro level. Decision-making – on and off of the ice – and defensive play are both areas in which he will need to make strides if he has hopes of reaching his ceiling. Mailloux, strictly speaking of on-the-ice play, is a good prospect, but hoping for anything more than a middle-pair support defender may be asking too much of him.

Jayden Struble made his pro debut at the end of last season with the Laval Rocket after a successful college run with Northeastern. He is a physically gifted player who flashes high-end ability but may settle in as an effective defender with solid transitional ability at the pro level. Swedish defender Adam Engstrom is of a similar mold in that he is a raw prospect with the skating ability and the physical traits that should give him a path to the NHL, but he will need to round his game out at both ends of the ice. Engstrom looked fantastic in the SHL this past season, taking steps toward refining his decision-making and becoming the two-way defender the Canadiens envisioned when they selected him 92nd overall in 2022, much higher than most public lists had him.

Round 1, 5th overall - David Reinbacher, RD, Kloten (Swiss)

Round 3, 69th overall - Jacob Fowler, G, Youngstown (USHL)

Round 4, 101st overall - Florian Xhekaj, LW, Hamilton (OHL)

Round 4, 110th overall - Bogdan Konyushkov, RD, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod (KHL)

Round 4, 128th overall - Quentin Miller, G, Quebec (QMJHL)

Round 5, 133rd overall - Sam Harris, LW, Sioux Falls (USHL)

Round 5, 144th overall - Yevgeni Volokhin, G, Mamonty Yugry (MHL)

Round 6, 165th overall - Filip Eriksson, C, Vaxjo J20 (Sweden Jr.)

Round 7, 197th overall - Luke Mittelstadt, LD, Univ. of Minnesota (NCAA)

The draft floor was electric as the Canadiens came up for the fifth overall pick. With Russian sniper Matvei Michkov still on the board, the fans wanted to add the highly skilled potential game-breaker. Reports leading up to the draft and the word on the ground in Nashville were that Montreal was leaning towards taking Austrian defender David Reinbacher. When Habs legend Carey Price came to the podium, even he didn’t know who to announce. Ultimately, it would be Reinbacher who was added to the prospect pool.

The 6-foot-2 defender has the tools to become a very good NHLer. He is a right-shot blueliner with a very solid foundation. His defensive game is steady, and he loves to try and get involved physically. His season in the Swiss men’s league was impressive as he racked up 22 points in 46 games, showing plenty of prowess on the power play as well. His offensive game may never be upper-echelon, but he is a capable passer with a big shot. With his defensive proficiency, he is a safe bet to become an NHLer, and his offensive tools give him some upside as well.

Jacob Fowler was one of the top goalies in the draft class after an exceptional season in the USHL, helping the Youngstown Phantoms to a league title while earning MVP honors in the playoffs. The USHL goaltender of the year has good size and moves well in his crease, staying square to shooters and ensuring he doesn’t need to come out of his technique too often. Fowler has excellent post integration and explodes laterally when the puck moves east-west. He needs to work on some of the finer aspects of his game, such as tracking the puck through traffic and knowing when to telescope out to the top of his crease to challenge shooters. He immediately becomes the Habs' top goalie prospect.

The Canadiens' selection of Florian Xhekaj, brother of fan favorite rookie Arber, was seen as a bit of a reach, but the hope is the fiery personality that Arber had to force his way into the NHL lineup is in his younger brother as well. The younger Xhekaj is a winger who plays a physical game and has some ability to cause havoc around the net, but he lacks a lot of what makes players successful at the pro level. His skating and puckhandling are below average in the OHL. His competitiveness and physicality are what attracted the Habs.

Bogdan Konyushkov, 20, was an interesting choice by the Canadiens. He was good in his rookie KHL season last year, putting up 25 points in 64 games. He is mobile and moves the puck efficiently, scanning for options and making passes in all three zones to advance play. The Habs hope Konyushkov can eventually make the trip to North America and play an effective lower-pair role for them as a puck-mover. His contract will keep him in Russia for three more years, though.

Quentin Miller was the backup goalie for the Memorial Cup-winning Quebec Remparts and looked very good in his limited sample size. He is an athletic goaltender who is a battler in net. Miller did a good job of stopping low-danger chances throughout the year, limiting the number of bad goals he allowed. He adds depth to their goalie pipeline, and it comes at a relatively good spot in the draft.

The Habs took a chance on 19-year-old Sam Harris, who is committed to the University of Denver next season. He is a physical player who throws big hits and tries to use his strength to play a power game with the puck. He must improve his open-ice speed and agility as well as his puck protection ability to continue playing his game at the next level, but if he does, he could be a great value pick.

It’s not often a team selects a third netminder in the same draft, but the Habs did just that with Russian junior star Yevgeni Volokhin. His numbers in the MHL were fantastic, and he has good size. Montreal will have plenty of time to let him develop and see how he fares as he moves up to the KHL over the next couple of years.

Filip Eriksson didn’t play much last season but produced at just about a point-per-game clip at the J20 level. He started the year great, with 10 points in eight J20 games before he was injured on a big hit in the SHL. He missed six months before returning to Vaxjo. He has good vision and plays a smart game, but with so little time to showcase his skill set, it was tough for Eriksson to generate buzz.

With their final pick, the Habs selected yet another overage prospect. Luke Mittelstadt stepped into college hockey and made an impact with the University of Minnesota, recording 21 points in 38 games as a freshman. He excels at playing with skilled skaters and does a nice job of moving the puck to them and letting them work. He was part of the U.S. world juniors squad, capturing bronze while playing a depth role. The 20-year-old could be an interesting late-round swing.

Depth all over the lineup is a major strength for the Habs, but their biggest area of strength is certainly their defensive pipeline. Hutson is the star of the show, manipulating and embarrassing opponents on a weekly basis. His creativity is on the level of the Cale Makars and Quinn Hughes of the world. His defensive warts are far greater, but the upside is there. Reinbacher is a big mobile blueliner who was paired with Hutson at prospect camp, with the duo drawing rave reviews. Add in Norlinder, Struble, Engstrom, Mailloux, and less heralded prospects such as Dmitri Kostenko and Daniil Sobolev, and the Habs have a multitude of prospects with legitimate paths to the NHL.

Montreal's found a mix of players at various positions over the past few years, but aside from Hutson – who is no sure thing despite the constant highlight reel – they lack a potential game-breaking superstar talent. Hopes are still very high for Slafkovsky as he could turn into a massive playmaking winger that plays with speed and power, but he must improve his small-area game and get quicker. He has good top speed, but there are areas of his skating that could use some work. Hutson certainly has the potential to be a big-time point producer, but his defensive flaws are woeful at times. If he can’t be relied upon to play in big minutes, he could become a specialist who can be a valuable asset but not necessarily a superstar talent. Montreal must find a way to take a big swing at the draft next year and find the top-of-the-lineup game-breaker that can compete in the loaded Atlantic Division.

There is no doubt that Slafkovsky will be in the lineup from Day 1, pencilled into the top six with every opportunity to get on the ice for effective minutes this fall for Montreal. He played in 39 games, but I left him included in the prospect pool as an exemption because he didn’t really find his footing in the NHL last season. This year, there should be no issue in that regard with the expectation that he plays an impact role.

Hutson was a top-10 Hobey Baker finalist last year, and this year, he should be one of the favorites. He will be a leader for BU this fall and will likely be the most dangerous player in college hockey. He should be one of the returnees for the American world junior team and be in the running for tournament MVP if all goes according to plan. When he returns from the world juniors, the plan will be to lead BU on a long post-season run. With all of that said, when he finally caps his college season off, it could be the end of his NCAA career. Barring something catastrophic, he should prove everything he needs to at the college level. Hutson playing NHL games at the tail end of next season almost feels like a sure thing.

LW: Juraj Slafkovsky, Sean Farrell, Emil Heineman, Luke Tuch, Florian Xhekaj

C: Owen Beck, Jan Mysak, Ty Smilanic, Oliver Kapanen, Riley Kidney

RW: Filip Mesar, Vinzenz Rohrer, Josh Roy, Blake Biondi

LD: Lane Hutson, Mattias Norlinder, Adam Engstrom, Jayden Struble, William Trudeau

RD: David Reinbacher, Logan Mailloux, Dmitri Kostenko, Daniil Sobolev

G: Jacob Fowler, Cayden Primeau, Joe Vrbetic, Jakub Dobes, Frederik Dichow

For a deeper dive into the prospect pool with player rankings, check out the Yearbook, Prospects Unlimited and Future Watch print editions of The Hockey News.