Top 15 CH prospects: positions 15 to 13

After playing in the shadows of Kevin Korchinski, Jeremy Hanzel, Sawyer Mynio and Luke Prokop in his first two seasons in Seattle, Pickford went the way of Medicine Hat, who aspired to top honors last year.

He went on to score 47 points in 48 regular-season games and a very impressive 13 goals in 18 playoff games as part of a powerful team led by young prodigy Gavin McKenna.

During the playoffs and the Memorial Cup, Pickford was noted for his major-league wrist shot and efficient puck movement. We also saw his hands at the Habs’ last development camp…

It will be interesting to see what impact McKenna’s departure (NCAA, $700,000!) will have on his production at Medicine Hat, when he’ll suddenly be playing for a much weaker club.

But he could also be traded again to an aspiring club, this time as a veteran who will already be 20 next spring..

Insurance and value for the organization

There’s been a lot of movement on the right side of defence in recent months, and the selection of Bryce Pickford in the middle of the third round of the last draft is in line with the “depth” the organization is looking for at this position.

The Logan Mailloux trade, which took place a few days after Pickford’s arrival, further confirmed his importance. So there’s a certain path to the NHL for him if everything falls into place when the time comes.

In addition to a considerable level of talent and a certain assurance with regard to his development, due in part to his age (19), the main reason why we place Pickford ahead of guys like Kapanen, Thorpe, Farrell, Roy and company is simply because, as a right-handed defenseman, his profile is rarer and more useful to the organization.

And with all due respect to Bogdan Konyushkov, Pickford can already be considered the^4th most important right-handed defender in the organization, after Dobson, Reinbacher and Carrier.

Finally, the Edmonton native may not have Logan Mailloux’s size or athleticism, but considering Dobson’s arrival, he’s a perfectly adequate “replacement” for the former first-round pick in the team’s bank of prospects. He should report to the Rocket next spring after his final season in the WHL.

Ultimately, we can look forward to a reliable third-pair defenseman capable of fulfilling a variety of missions as needed.

Here’s a player with character and a team player who could one day be called upon to replace Alexandre Carrier in the same kinds of missions.

And with the Mailloux trade and the very surprising (in a good way!) return obtained by the Habs (Bolduc), we have no choice but to recognize the considerable value of a young right-handed defenseman with interesting potential…

We like the gamble the Habs took with Pickford.

14.Owen Beck | C | 21 years old | 33rd, 2022
Potential: 30/40
Insurance: 15.5/20
Utility/rarity/use value: 20.5/30
Trade value: 6/10
Total: 72/100

Beck has already been in this ranking for a while.

From the same generation as Slafkovsky, Mesar, Hutson and Engstrom, Beck is a bit like the group’s metronome. He’s a serious little man, in his element, one day at a time, one thing at a time, a little train that goes a long way, and for whom everything comes to he who waits.

Etc.

But that doesn’t make Beck a completely “beige” player.

His vision and creativity may not be his greatest strengths, but the Ontarian skates with drive and determination. He wins face-offs, hits opponents hard, has a great wrist shot, records his share of points and is alert defensively.

Although we would have liked to see more from him during his 12 games in Montreal and in the Laval playoffs last spring, we did get to see his qualities and efficiency in the regular season, where he scored 44 points in 64 games with the Rocket, while maintaining a +10 differential.

In short, eventually you should have in Beck a reliable, versatile fourth-line center or bottom-six player who could inherit a key shorthanded role.

Beck is close to the NHL. All he needs is a little experience.

All in all, I think his overall impact should be slightly greater than Oliver Kapanen’s, and he would be my choice between the two in the medium to long term.

But, in similar roles, with Jake Evans ahead of him and Kapanen slightly older, the Canadiens have the luxury of macerating Beck a little longer in Laval if they wish.

However, as with Kapanen, Beck is no longer a rare player in the line-up as a right-handed or depth center, so the Habs also have the option of trading him without a problem.

In short, we have to give him high marks for his arrival in the pros, and he certainly didn’t go unnoticed by professional scouts last season on the catwalks of AHL and NHL arenas…

13. Florian Xhekaj | C/AG | 21 years old | 101st, 2023
Potential: 31/40
Insurance: 14.5/20
Utility/rarity/use value: 21.5/30
Trade value: 6.5/10
Total: 73.5/100

Here’s a much rarer bird in ^13th place.

The “little brother of the other” had a surprising first season in the pros and made many eyes wide open with his scoring touch.

It’s not every 20-year-old who has a 24-goal season in the AHL, without even touching the ice on the powerplay…

But we have to be careful with our assessment of Xhekaj’s talent. His success percentage on his shots was abnormally high at over 25% (!!!) and he may have had a bit of “beginner’s luck”.

That said, if we disregard the goals and go back to his overall profile, we understand even better the meaning of the “Unicorn” nickname Nick Bobrov gave him when he was selected in 2023.

The Canadiens don’t really count on another player with this profile: a big, left-handed forward with offensive skills, who can play center, is fast enough, mean to the end of his fist, and also has a good feel for the game in both directions of the rink.

Xhekaj outplayed a lot of people in Laval last year, and many have high prospects for him in the upcoming camp, not least because he can provide the kind of shoulder kick that was sorely lacking in the playoffs against Washington…

For his part, the main interested party promised himself, among other things, a big summer of practice where he wants to put on more muscle mass..

We’ll see as time goes on, but I for one remain cautious and moderate in his case in this month of July.

Xhekaj doesn’t have to make the big club in October for his career to be a success. There would be nothing wrong with giving him more experience and developing him further in Laval, whatever Logan Mailloux thinks…

That said, during his end-of-season review, Kent Hughes, himself, referred to the fact that he’s looking for robust players of his profile and wants to keep doors open for some youngsters. We can deduce from this that Xhekaj will probably be given a very long audition at the next camp, provided he performs adequately.

Yes, even though Joe Veleno has just been offered a one-year contract as a left-handed depth center…

Conclusion
Still, it’s a pretty solid start to the countdown to the 15-13 positions with these three up-and-coming support players, two of whom, Xhekaj and Beck, could play a number of games in Montreal as early as next season.

We remember the not-so-distant past when this top 15 was a “top 12” in which it was hard to find this kind of profile at the beginning of the countdown..

And let’s not forget that we’ve included Oliver Kapanen – who’s likely to have a full-time job in Montreal in the fall – as well as such fine “projects” as Tyler Thorpe and the two goalies Radkov and Volokhin, in the ” honorable mentions “.

And there’s always Roy and Farrell, who could rise from the ashes and surprise us..

Needless to say, there’s plenty of talent in the Habs’ bank of prospects.

We’ll be back next week with positions 12 to 10.

Let’s start talking about quality…