NHL Prospect Expert Ranks Habs as 5th Best Pipeline

Part of the reason that Pronman sees Slafkovsky higher up than Demidov could be related to just how much he doesn’t like Demidov’s skating stride calling it awkward that could become a minor issue in his game. Maybe Demidov’s skating stride isn’t the most traditional for the league’s best skaters and it could be awkward to watch, however there is no way his skating should be considered below NHL average. Either if he thinks that with how high Demidov’s potential being that shouldn’t stop him of being the top player in the Habs pipeline as he’s likely to become.

As for Lane Hutson, Pronman only sees Hutson as a top of the lineup player rather than the NHL All-Star Tier that the two wingers were listed at. This is despite Hutson having a historical rookie campaign last year. With that being said, Hutson is already looking like he’ll at least be an NHL All-Star, even if his defensive game will be average at best compared to other defenders in the league. Besides as the season went on Hutson proved that he could defending better using his feet and stick. Nonetheless, when you place him with a defensive first defenseman like David Reinbacher or Kaiden Guhle, it will allow him to use hia elite eluaiveness and hockey sense to make his incredible plays.

With David Reinbacher, Zachary Bolduc and Michael Hage all being listed as the 4th,5th and 6th best players in the pipeline, I have no complaints as the tiers and rankings for them seem about right. My only disagreement that I have here is that Pronman doesn’t see Hage as an NHL centre. Sure, there are times of inconsistency with him but I do feel he played very well up the middle of the ice at Michigan last year and I think that he will make it as a centre at the NHL level.

The most controversial part of the article was easily that he sees Habs top goaltender prospect Jacob Fowler as an NHL backup at best. As it stands, Fowler has won key games and championships at nearly every level he’s played at and works harder than most goaltender prospects.  Pronman does admit that as well, but it does seem like he puts a little too much focus on what the traditional athleticism  of an NHL goaltender as it seems to be the only thing he’s critical of to see him as an NHL backup at his best. I mean he may not becoming an elite goaltender but to me it seems that at the very least Fowler can be a 1A/1B type of goaltender in the future with the way he’s developing. I mean time will tell on how Fowler progresses but as of now everything looks positive and his overall athleticism shouldn’t play that big of a role in his projection. Fowler has already proven that the athleticism doesn’t matter and he can continously be a star netminder at every level, so why can’t he do it at the NHL level?

What are your thoughts on Corey Pronman’s takes about the Habs?