Montreal Canadiens: Liam Hawel a Good Depth Signing For Laval Rocket

The Montreal Canadiens made big news by signing prized prospect Alexander Romanov to an entry-level contract yesterday. They also added some solid organizational depth by bringing in Liam Hawel.

The Montreal Canadiens made big news yesterday in the midst of the NHL’s hiatus from on-ice action. They signed one of their best prospects, Alexander Romanov, to an entry-level contract. The Russian defenceman was not the only player that inked a deal with the Habs though.

Liam Hawel didn’t get the headlines that Romanov did, but he will bring some solid organizational depth that was desperately lacking this season. Hawel signed a one-year, one-way AHL contract with the Laval Rocket for the 2020-21 season.

Hawel just wrapped up an impressive OHL career where he played with the Soo Greyhounds, Guelph Storm and Kitchener Rangers. He scored 23 goals and 71 points in 54 games while serving as an assistant captain for the Rangers this season. He was second on the team in scoring and they were ranked third in the OHL standings when the league cancelled the remainder of its season.

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Last season, Hawel was a member of the Guelph Storm where he was teammates with Habs super-rookie Nick Suzuki. Hawel scored 37 goals and 78 points in 66 games with the Storm that season. He split the 2016-17 campaign with the Storm and Greyhounds and scored nine goals and 28 points in 66 games. He was drafted in the 4th round of the 2017 NHL Draft by the Dallas Stars but never signed with them.

The 6’4″, 195 pound centre with a right handed shot brings a lot to the table for the Rocket. He obviously has tremendous size that he uses to his advantage and provided a solid scoring punch at the OHL level.

He attended the Canadiens rookie camp last fall and impressed enough to be invited to the team’s main training camp, though he was one of the first players sent back to Junior. The Habs were obviously intrigued by his mix of size and scoring ability with the Storm while he played with Suzuki. The combination of being 6’4″ and skilled enough to score 37 goals while playing centre in the OHL is an intriguing package.

The Habs top farm team has been ravaged by injuries and call-ups to the Canadiens over the past few years. The Rocket used 41 skaters this season before their season was stopped in March. They were constantly shuffling players in and out as they were either hurt or called up to Montreal to fill in for injuries there.

An added bonus to Hawel’s contract is it is an AHL-only deal. NHL teams are only allowed to have 50 players under contract at any time. It sounds like a lot, but when you consider the NHL roster is 23 players and then there are all the signed prospects that play in the AHL and a couple of depth pieces that are finding their way in the ECHL, it gets tight pretty quick.

Having an interesting 21 year old prospect like Hawel developing with the Laval Rocket, while not counting against their 50-contract limit makes him terrific depth for the organization. Hawel easily could have held out longer hoping to find an NHL-AHL two-way contract elsewhere, but clearly liked what he saw when attending the Habs camp last fall.