Canadiens: 3 Prospects Who Improved Their Stock Most This Season

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The Montreal Canadiens have a terrific pool of prospects. According to anyone who follows hockey prospects, the Habs have one of the best groups of up and coming talent.

The Montreal Canadiens have one of the best groups of young prospects in the National Hockey League. They have focused heavily on adding picks at the past two drafts and it has paid off quickly with a deep pool of young talent that could be flooding to the big league team in the near future.

Some of the Habs best prospects include recent first round picks like Cole Caufield and Jesperi Kotakniemi. Caufield had a terrific freshman campaign at Wisconsin this year and just announced that he will return for a second season with the Badgers. This is great news for his long-term development and should ensure he is ready to contribute at the NHL level when he does turn pro in the future.

However, Caufield did not improve his stock as much as some of the other prospects in the pipeline. Caufield was great, but he was phenomenal for the United States Development Team in the past and had extremely high expectations to begin the season. So, even though he is their best prospect, he didn’t necessarily improve the most over the past year.

So, this is not a ranking of the Habs top prospects. That would most definitely include Caufield and open the debate about whether or not Kotkaniemi is a prospect again now that he is a member of the Laval Rocket.

This is just a list that looks back over the past year and ranks which of the many Canadiens prospects have improved their value the most. They could be one of the team’s best prospects, or they could be a little further off the radar but had a tremendous season after being late round draft picks.

So, let’s take a look at the three Habs prospects who improved their stock the most this season.

VICTORIA , BC – DECEMBER 26: Team Sweden (Photo by Kevin Light/Getty Images) /

Mattias Norlinder

The Canadiens made a great trade when they dealt captain Max Pacioretty to the Vegas Golden Knights at the beginning of last season. They got an immediate impact from Tomas Tatar the past two seasons, Nick Suzuki looked great this season and they also got a 2019 second round draft pick in the trade.

They moved that second round pick at the NHL Draft for a third round pick and a fifth round pick. Third round picks sound like high picks, but whether it is the first pick of the round or the last pick, it has a low chance of becoming a star player in the future. Many of them don’t make an impact at the NHL level at all.

When the Habs announced the pick, they took a little known defenseman named Mattias Norlinder. He is a Swedish defender who was passed over in the 2018 NHL Draft but was ranked even higher than this by most draft pundits a year later.

Norlinder had a solid season in 2018-19 with Modo’s Junior team, showing a penchant for jumping into the play and driving offence from the back end. He was promoted for 14 games to Allsvenskan which is the second best pro league in Sweden and scored six points in 14 games.

Norlinder played this past season with Modo in the Allsvenskan once again. He scored seven goals and 18 points in 34 games which was solid production from a Junior aged player. In fact, he won the award for best Junior aged player in the Allsvenskan and helped Modo become one of the top teams in the league. They were on their way to being promoted back to Sweden’s best league, the SHL, before play was halted.

When he was drafted a year ago, Norlinder looked like a slender defenceman with some offensive tools. Fast forward a year and he looks good offensively and just fine defensively playing in a pro league in Sweden and he earned a spot on a deep Swedish World Junior team.

WINDSOR, ON – SEPTEMBER 20: Forward Cam Hillis. (Photo by Dennis Pajot/Getty Images) /

2. Cam Hillis

Cam Hillis was drafted by the Canadiens at the 2018 NHL Draft. He was a third round pick, just like Norlinder, and he had a great year before being drafted. Hillis had played that season with the Guelph Storm and had a fantastic rookie season in the Ontario Hockey League.

The 5’11” centre scored 20 goals and 59 points in 60 games that season. You couldn’t ask for much more from a 17 year old in his first season of Junior hockey. Even more was expected of Hillis last season, when the Storm were loading up for a chance at a league championship and had some of their top scorers returning.

Unfortunately, injuries caught up with Hillis, though the team did load up and went on a run that saw them win the Ontario Hockey League championship and go on to compete at the Memorial Cup last May.

Hillis did not factor into the team’s success all that much. He played just 33 games and scored ten goals and 22 points. He only suited up for two postseason games and failed to register a point and was injured for the Memorial Cup.

This season however, Hillis is back and better than ever. He was named captain of the Guelph team at the start of the season and has done a great job leading by example all year long. Hillis has 24 goals and 83 points in 62 games this season and has been setting up linemate Pavel Gogolev all year long, making him one of the top goal scoring threats in the league.

A year ago, it appeared Hillis had lost his way. Injuries took their toll and his production was much lower when he did play than it was the year before. The 19 year old centre has erased any doubts this season with a tremendous bounce back season and should be playing down the middle for the Laval Rocket next season.

BOSTON, MA – FEBRUARY 10: Jordan Harris #2. (Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images) /

1. Jordan Harris

The one player who has seen his stock rise the most lately is Jordan Harris. The American defenseman was taken in the third round of the 2018 NHL Draft, just a few spots after Hillis was selected. Like I said earlier, third round picks are no guarantee, though the Habs recent third round picks have obviously made an impression.

Harris was drafted after a terrific prep school career in New Hampshire. He played last season as a freshman at Northeastern University where he was teammates with Cayden Primeau. Harris was steady in his first year and showed some promise for a third round pick. He scored one goal and 13 points in 39 games for Northeastern.

This season, Harris stepped up and became a key player for the Huskies. He took on more minutes than he had played in his first season and was leaned upon in all situations for the Huskies. He provided more offence, scoring three goals and 21 points in 33 games before the season was cancelled. Harris was also one of the team’s best shutdown defenders, often on the ice when the team was shorthanded or needed to hang on to a late lead.

Harris is a left-shooting defender but showed an ability to play on either side of the ice. This came in clutch for the American team at the World Juniors, who were heavy on left shooting defensemen and needed some of them to play their off side.

In five games at the World Juniors, Harris scored one goal and played a smart, defensive game for the Americans. He showed that same steady, reliable defence all year for Northeastern and added a nice dose of offence to his game as well.

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His ability to play both sides of the ice and at both ends of the rink make Harris a unique defender. He has all the tools to become a reliable third or maybe even second pairing defenseman who keeps mistakes to a minimum and plays a great defensive game while getting involved offensively from time to time.

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