THN's Tony Ferrari thinks really highly of the Canadiens' prospect pool, and there are a few players in there that shouldn't be used as bargaining chips.
The Hockey News’ resident prospect expert Tony Ferrari recently penned an article about the state of the Montreal Canadiens’ prospect pool, where he paints a glowing picture of the Habs’ pipeline. Earlier this week, he was a guest on Tony Marinaro’s The Sick Podcast to discuss the article and his take on some of the organization's most promising prospects.
While the Habs have not been active on the trade market this summer, Marinaro asked Ferrari if he believed the Canadiens could use some of their young talent to go fetch some established players who could help the team right now, and the writer preached for a patient approach, especially in two cases: Michael Hage and Jacob Fowler.
For Ferrari, unless GM Kent Hughes receives an offer that blows him out of the water, he shouldn’t move the Michigan Wolverine player or the standout goaltender. He holds Hage in high esteem, mentioning that he’s the kind of player who makes everyone around him better, and while he’s not certain that he’ll be a center in the NHL, he’s at least going to be a top-six winger.
As for Fowler, Ferrari praises him for his ability to show up for the big games, to win when it really matters, and while he’s a bit on the smaller size (he’s 6-foot-1 and 223 pounds compared to Jakub Dobes’ 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds), he believes he’ll be an elite goalie in the NHL, one that will likely get Vezina Trophy votes. As such, he sees him as having more potential than Dobes, but he doesn’t think Hughes should consider trading one of the two young goaltenders to fix some of the Canadiens’ immediate needs. The state of their goaltending is a force, especially going into what should be the best years of Nick Suzuki’s career.
It’s impossible to argue with that, especially since the two goaltenders aren’t costing very much right now and even in the years to come, if Hughes manages to work his magic on Fowler as he has on his other players, convincing them to take team-friendly deals. However, at one stage or another, if you want to rope in experienced and established NHLers, you have to offer something that will make the other team bite, and that’s unlikely to happen if the centrepiece of a trade offer is often-injured forward Kirby Dach.
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