Montreal Canadiens sign first-round pick Filip Mesar to entry-level deal

It wasn’t just Juraj Slafkovsky that the Montreal Canadiens picked on day one of this year’s draft. Fellow Slovakian forward Filip Mesar was taken later in the round and today, he signed his three-year entry-level contract.

Unlike his countryman, Mesar might take a little longer to reach the NHL given his size and relative lack of experience. But make no mistake, he too has huge upside on the offensive side of the puck thanks to his elite skating ability.

When hockey analytics people talk about the importance of controlled zone entries, they’re talking about players like Mesar, who have the ability to weave through traffic with the puck and get it into the zone without having to dump it into the corner. There’s no retrieval necessary when he’s on the ice — he’ll just carry it in and set up the offense by himself.

There are concerns about his size and whether that will hinder him at the NHL level but for now, he will likely return to Europe to continue his development at the professional level. In 37 games in the Slovak league this year, Mesar had eight goals and 16 points.

Unless he somehow makes the Canadiens roster and plays more than nine games, he will not burn the first year of his entry-level deal this season. It will slide forward, allowing them to keep him under team control a little longer.