Olympic Break Top 10 Habs Prospects: #7 Owen Beck

Beck’s game seems to be very steady in terms of what he will bring. The 21-year-old forward is destined to be a solid bottom-six centre that will be a faceoff and penalty kill specialist in his prime. He could probably play in the NHL now, but with the current logjam at forward, there is just no room for him on the Canadiens roster at the moment. It’s only a matter of time before Beck gets to be a full-time NHLer; the only question is will it be with the Canadiens or elsewhere?

During his last stint with the Habs, Beck had his best performance, where he managed to score his first NHL goal twice against the Pittsburgh Penguins in a span of a week (the first time it was called back after the play was deemed offside). Then the next time the Habs would play the Penguins, he would score his first career goal again, but this time it would stand. He would play 13 games during that stint before getting sent back to the Laval Rocket, where he showed no reason why he couldn’t be a 4th liner in the NHL now. However, at the same time, continuing to develop his game in the AHL could help him round out his offensive game more, especially since his production, much like Florian Xhekaj’s, has been done this season.

After putting up 15 goals and 44 points in 64 games during his AHL rookie season, he only has 4 goals and 16 points in 33 games, being on pace for just 7 goals and 28 points in 58 games. It’s understandable if he produces fewer points because he’s played a lot more in the NHL than last season; however, the issue is his points per game have dropped significantly from 0.68 PPG to 0.48 PPG. This is a bit concerning when wondering how much offence he could bring at the NHL level. It is also part of the reason that he has fallen from the 5th spot in the summer to the 7th now. All the forwards at the very least above him have seen improvements offensively, which plays a factor in why he can’t be placed higher up on the list.

It will be interesting to see if Beck can turn his offensive game around and become a similar player to Jake Evans for the Canadiens in the future, playing a defensive specialist role while contributing some offence from the bottom six. There seems to be no doubt that Beck’s offensive game is limited, but as to whether it can round out for him to be a 12-15 goal scorer and 25-35 point scorer could be the difference between whether he plays on the 4th line or on a 3rd line in the future. It should be noted that he has a very good shot that can help him score big goals someday.

Do you agree that Beck is the Habs’ 7th best prospect?

Check out yesterday’s analysis of the Canadiens’ 8th best prospect, LJ Mooney.