The Montreal Canadiens have a great prospect waiting in the wings in Ryan Poehling. Calling him up to play on the fourth line would not hurt his development at all.
The Montreal Canadiens saw great things from a trio of 20 year olds at training camp. Ryan Poehling looked great but only got to play two games due to a concussion he suffered against the Florida Panthers. Nick Suzuki and Cale Fleury also played well in camp and won jobs for themselves when the regular season began.
With the way Poehling was playing, there is no question he would have earned a spot in the Canadiens lineup as well. He was showing tremendous maturity, poise, smarts and skill at both ends of the ice. Unfortunately, he was injured and it was decided that it would be best to let him find his footing in the American Hockey League.
After starting a bit slow with the Laval Rocket, Poehling has taken on a bigger role in recent games and has started scoring regularly as well. He was held without a point in his first three games, but has five points in his last seven.
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More important than the points is the way Poehling plays the game. He limits mistakes and is always in the right place. He battles hard for pucks and often comes out of the corner with control of the puck. He can do the little things like win face-offs, win puck battles, break up plays defensively by being in the right spot and bigger things like killing penalties, shutting down the opposition and chipping in plenty of offence.
Poehling is a prototypical 200-foot center. He does everything right all over the ice and is beginning to show that with regularity for the Rocket. The only question now is, how much time does he have left with in Laval before he trades in the jersey with an R on the front for one with a C.
One problem with calling him up to Montreal, is the Canadiens actually have center depth for the first time since Saku Koivu was a rookie.
With Max Domi playing well down the middle, Phillip Danault centering one of the best lines in the league and Jesperi Kotkaniemi holding the fort as the third line center, there isn’t a prominent role for Poehling to fill right away.
Conventional wisdom will tell you that playing a 20 year old rookie on the fourth line does more harm than good. Most hockey fans will say a player is better off playing big minutes in the minors than being on the fourth line of an NHL team. That may be true elsewhere, but it is definitely not the case with the Canadiens.
Just look at the ice time for the Canadiens fourth liners lately. Head Coach Claude Julien likes to use a regular rotation at even strength, giving a little more ice time to the top six forwards, but not much. It is rare for a Canadiens forward to play less than ten minutes in any game, whether the team is winning, losing or tied throughout the contest.
Just look at Nate Thompson. He is the current fourth line center, and would be the most likely candidate to sit in favour of Poehling in the (near?) future. The least Thompson has played in a game this season was 12:21 against the Detroit Red Wings in the Canadiens home opener. You may recall the Habs trailed for most of that game, yet the fourth line center still played more than 12 minutes.
As the fourth line center for all 11 games this season, Thompson has averaged 13:33 per game. That includes an average of 2:10 per game while shorthanded, but Poehling would step right into a penalty killing role anyway.
Julien has not been hesitant to put young players on the ice in key situations this season. In fact, Suzuki, who is also a 20 year old forward, has struggled at times to begin the season but never played less than 12 minutes in a game. He gets a regular shift at even strength and gets plenty of power play time as well.
If Poehling were called up right now and put on the fourth line, it would be excellent for his development. He would play a regular rotation at even strength and would have an offensively skilled winger in Suzuki with him. He would also take over Thompson’s role as the second most used center on the penalty kill after Danault. With his offensive game, he might even find some time on the second power play over Nick Cousins.
Julien isn’t punishing young players and having them sit on the bench for length periods of time. Even fourth liners are getting plenty of ice time as Julien has clearly decided to use his depth as a weapon this season.
Calling up Poehling and having him start on the fourth line would not hurt his development at all. The worst thing for his development is to be stuck in Laval for any length of time on a struggling team that hasn’t been able to dig itself out of the doldrums for nearly a decade.