Montreal Canadiens Cole Caufield Gives Habs NHL’s Best Prospect Pool
The Montreal Canadiens have quickly built up their pool of prospects. Drafting Cole Caufield just puts the cherry on top of the league’s best group of prospects.
The Montreal Canadiens finished in what is supposed to be the worst place to be in the NHL standings. They just missed the postseason, which put them outside the NHL Playoffs, but also nowhere near the top of the NHL Draft. It’s the dreaded middle ground.
As it turns out, the Canadiens were able to draft an exceptional prospect with the 15th overall selection. Cole Caufield set goal scoring records for the U.S. National Development Program that were previous held by Auston Matthews. The Canadiens were extremely fortunate to have him drop to them in the first round of the draft.
Caufield is a scoring machine. He is set to head to Wisconsin to play NCAA hockey next season. It won’t take long for him to turn into a first line goal scoring threat in the NHL after that. His speed, skill, ability to get open and the frequency of which he can put pucks in the net makes him the team’s top prospect immediately.
Caufield is far from the only prospect in the Canadiens system that has an NHL future. They have a wealth of prospects at every position on the ice.
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Down the middle, the Canadiens have World Junior MVP Ryan Poehling set to play his first full professional season. The excellent two-way center is basically a Ryan O’Reilly clone who scored a hat-trick in his one and only NHL game. He led the St. Cloud State Huskies to back-to-back number one rankings in the United States College loop.
Nick Suzuki is another center in the Habs system who could have a huge impact as soon as this season. Suzuki had three straight excellent years in the Ontario Hockey League. He had 94 points this season in 59 games, after campaigns of 96 and 100 points. He saved his best for the postseason, where he scored 42 points in 24 games.
Suzuki basically carried his Guelph Storm team all the way from a 3-0 second round series deficit to a berth in the Memorial Cup after winning the OHL championship. He projects to be a top six forward with his speed, skill and ability to setup teammates and put the puck in the net himself. Whether he plays center or right wing is yet to be determined but there is a high probability he is an impact player in the near future.
Another player that could be a top six winger is Jesse Ylonen. The Finnish right winger is 19 years old but already had an impressive showing in the top league in Finland. Teenagers rarely have an offensive impact at that level, but Ylonen scored 27 points in 53 games in Liiga with the Lahden Pelicans.
It doesn’t sound like huge production, but it is the exact same points per game that Colorado Avalanche superstar Mikko Rantanen scored at when he was the same age. Ylonen also chipped in six points in seven games at the World Juniors as an underager, helping Finland win gold.
On the left side of the ice, the Canadiens signed Joel Teasdale out of the QMJHL a year ago. The 20 year old rewarded them by scoring 80 points in the regular season and then scoring 34 in 20 playoff games. He helped lead the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies to a QMJHL and Memorial Cup championship. He won the MVP at the Memorial Cup after scoring four goals and five points in five games while playing a dominating, physical style that wore out opposing defenders.
On defence, the Canadiens had a plethora of right shooting options, but were a bit light on the left side. They chose to address that issue at the recent NHL Draft.
Josh Brook is an excellent prospect who scored 75 points in 59 games for the Moose Jaw Warriors this season. The 20 year old was asked to represent Canada at the World Juniors and was able to make his pro debut for the Laval Rocket at the end of the season.
Cale Fleury is an interesting player who was under the radar in Junior because he played on a terrible team in Kootenay for three years. He flourished after a trade to the Regina Pats, and just had a solid first season with the Rocket as a 20 year old.
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Noah Juulsen is the third right shooting prospect on the list and is the most NHL ready. He looked great to start last season but injuries held him to just 21 games. At 22 years old, and fully healthy for summer training, he will be a steady two-way presence on the Canadiens blue line for many years to come.
On the left side of the defence you will find the Canadiens best defensive prospect. Alexander Romanov was a huge gamble for the Habs when they took him in the second round of the 2018 NHL Draft.
Since then he has earned a full time role on a KHL championship team, which is no small feat for an 18 year old in Russia. He also won the World Juniors top defenseman award, and is eligible to return to the tournament next season.
The Canadiens also brought in a few more solid left shooting defensemen at this year’s draft. Jayden Struble was taken in the second round and is off to Northeastern next season where he will play with Jordan Harris, yet another Habs prospect.
In the third round of the draft, Montreal took Swedish defenseman Mattias Norlinder who earned high praise from scouts in his native country. Giovanni Fairbrother was also taken in the third round after scoring 36 points in 64 games for the Everett Silvertips of the WHL.
In net, the Canadiens have an excellent prospect in Cayden Primeau. The 19 year old was taken in the 7th round of the 2017 NHL Draft, and just won the Mike Richter Award as the top goaltender in NCAA Hockey. After two successful seasons at Northeastern he elected to sign his entry level contract and will play in Laval next season.
That is quite the impressive list of exceptional prospects. It was a little thin on the wing and left defence, but Caufield, Struble and Norlinder help fill the only void that existed. This list also doesn’t include NHL regulars Jesperi Kotkaniemi who is still 18, Max Domi and Jonathan Drouin who are 24, Artturi Lehkonen who is 23 or Victor Mete who is just 21.
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What’s more impressive is almost all of these players, with the exception of Mete, Juulsen and Lehkonen have been acquired within the last two years. That is some impressive work by the Montreal Canadiens management team. They have built the best prospect pool in the league and they did most of the work in the last 48 months.