Montreal Canadiens: Top Prospect Countdown: No. 5

After a strong season in the NCAA, Ryan Poehling has been generating buzz from Montreal Canadiens fans with some strong showings following the draft.

While the Montreal Canadiens have some solid prospects to build towards in the future, they sit near the back of the league in prospect pool rankings.

With that in mind, let’s look at who will be the top players in the Habs pipeline this season.

Last week, we covered our prospects ranked 10-6. Today, we look at Ryan Poehling who is the fifth ranked prospect on our board.

Poehling was taken with the Canadiens 25th overall pick in this years NHL Draft. He generated a lot of interest from teams picking at the back half of the first round, including the Chicago Blackhawks, who were reportedly waiting to snag the centre when their pick came around.

The 18-year-old played his first season in the NCAA last year with the St. Cloud State Huskies. With a team that featured brothers Nick and Jack, as well as 2016 first-rounder Dennis Cholowski, Poehling had a solid freshman year with seven goals and 13 points in 35 games.

He showed great hand-eye coordination on his goals as most of them came of deflections in front of the net.

After being taken by the Habs, Poehling showed off his skills at Habs development camp, and then again at the World Junior Summer Showcase. The centre finished with seven points across five games in the tournament, with five of those points coming in the final two games of the showcase.

Poehling is the best centre in the Canadiens system. He has the ideal frame of an every day NHL centre and the skills to boot.

At only 18, he’s not making the jump to the NHL right away. He could leave the NCAA at any time to turn pro, but it looks like Poehling will be back with the Huskies this season and could go back for his junior year as well. But one thing we do know is that when he gets to the Canadiens, he will be a solid contributor.