Habs Sign Luke Mittlestadt to Entry-Level Contract

As a 23-year-old prospect coming out of college after 4 years at the University of Minnesota, Mittlestadt’s entry-level is required to be 2 years rather than the 3 years a 21-year-old or younger would otherwise get. While Mittlestadt is older than the average prospect, he was a late bloomer that managed to improve his game on defence every year at the University of Minnesota and could potentially become a good defenceman for the Laval Rocket. For a double-overager that went in the 7th round of the 2023 NHL draft, just getting his entry-level contract is already better than many guys in his situation.

What Mittlestadt will bring to the Rocket is a good defensive game with the ability to provide offence from the blueline as a potential 2nd power play unit guy. He also brings leadership after being the captain of the Gophers during his final collegiate season. Unfortunately his season with the Gophers ended early, but the positive is that he should have the chance to get to play pro hockey in the AHL before the end of the season, which should be great for his development.

One of his downsides is that while he plays a solid defensive game, he is slightly on the smaller side at 5’11 and lacks the true high-end offensive ability that most defensemen his size need to make the NHL.

Mittlestadt likely won’t make the NHL, but he does have the ability to grow into a solid defenseman with the Rocket and make for a solid AHL career in the process. Although at the same time he could prove that his 4-year development in college was enough to help him eventually become a depth defenseman in the NHL, we likely shouldn’t expect it to happen.

This past season was also the weakest version of the Gophers that he was a part of during his time in university, as for the first time in his career he was a minus player in college with a -10 rating. In reality it was less about him regressing and more about the team around him struggling to produce up to how they did the year before. A huge reason is because all their top players graduated to the pros for this season.

As for Mittlestadt, his goal scoring remained consistent as he scored 2 goals in each of his last 3 seasons and had a career-high 19 assists as well as tied his point total high from his rookie season of 21 back in 2022-23. In fact, it was his rookie season in college, where he had 5 goals and 21 points that even got him on the Habs’ radar to draft him.

It will be interesting to see if all his college experience and the development he had allow him to have a smooth transition to the pros with the Rocket in the next coming weeks.