Next season will be an important one for the Montreal Canadiens prospects

The Montreal Canadiens will try to qualify for the playoffs in the 2019-20 season, but a number of their prospects will be on the hunt for entry-level deals.

Newness is always something to focus on in professional sports. There’s interest in what Ben Chiarot or Nick Cousins can bring to the Montreal Canadiens or what the new season will bring. That’s what makes the NHL Draft so exciting as it’s filled to the brim of new names joining an organization.

But the draft is the first step of an ongoing process. A team selecting a player in any given round doesn’t mean they’ll stick around (unless they were drafted out of Russia but that’s a different story and has limits of its own). There are certain periods of time teams have to sign drafted players in order to retain their rights, and the Habs have five coming up in 2020.

The majority of this ties back to the 2018 NHL Draft. Four of Montreal’s 11 selections that year were out of the CHL (two from the OHL, and one each from the WHL and QMJHL). Per the CBA, players drafted out of the CHL have two years to be signed by their drafted team.

It’s an annual event, and the Habs had to deal with it a few months ago. Josh Brook and Cale Fleury (both drafted out of the WHL in 2017) already received their entry-level deals while Scott Walford and Jarret Tyszka were left unsigned.

Walford and Tyszka were passed on in the 2019 draft but got development camp invites from the Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars respectively.

The same decisions will be coming for Cam Hillis (third-round pick), Allan McShane (fourth-round pick), Cole Fonstad (fifth-round pick) and Samuel Houde (fifth-round pick).

McShane improved on his performance from his draft year earning four more points but 14 extra goals in the process with 34. Houde had a career year as well, matching his goal line but adding more assists. Fonstad matched his production but had more goals which is another reassuring aspect of a season that led to a WHL championship.

Hillis, on the other hand, had his season reduced with injury even though his Guelph Storm won the OHL. He did have 22 points in 33 games which isn’t a stat line to shrug off, but he’ll need to have a big season given he’s now the team’s captain.

The final name to watch is Rafaël Harvey-Pinard who the Montreal Canadiens drafted in the seventh-round as an overager. Harvey-Pinard hit 40 in both goals and assists and helped the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies win the Presidents Trophy in the Q as well as the Memorial Cup.

It’s easy to disregard his production given his age, but he’ll need to prove to the Habs he’s worth keeping around. The same goes for the other four.

The Montreal Canadiens have a lot of skill coming up on the wing, and these five need to stand out amongst the rest. And if we can learn from what happened this past June, the Habs are only keeping players they feel can be beneficial to them down the line. Otherwise, they have no issue with letting them move on.

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