Montreal Canadiens: The future of Tomas Tatar and Jeff Petry

Scott Cowan: History has shown us that the Canadiens AHL affiliates are never ones to look down upon. From the Calder Cup champion Hamilton Bulldogs in 2006-07 to a 2016-17 St. John’s IceCaps team that snuck into the playoffs on the last day of the season, the Habs farm teams have managed to make their name known multiple times.

While the Laval Rocket have, to say the least, struggled over their first 2 seasons, this year looked to be different, as the team was in a tight race for a playoff spot before the AHL season was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While I do believe the Rocket are in the perfect situation to make the playoffs should next season happen, I still think a championship is a few years away.

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Players like Cayden Primeau and Jake Evans give me hope for a bright future, but Joel Bouchard still needs some more consistent scorers for his team to truly succeed. While his team-first approach has helped the Rocket get this far, having players like Joseph Blandisi on the team for a full season would help.

Omar White: The Laval Rocket’s issues have generally been from their play in their own zone. In their first season, it was that in combination with taking too many penalties without having a proper penalty kill to fight them off or scoring to outweigh the deficits. All those issues came together in their second year when the Montreal Canadiens were pelted with injuries on which seemed like a weekly basis, and the organization didn’t have enough to fill in the holes in the midst of call-ups.

Thankfully the team now has a system that prioritizes offensive skill and has a better executed blue line to help offset the chances against. Goaltending has never been a massive issue, but Cayden Primeau playing the way he did this season is a sure-fire sign of hope down the line. What the team needs is star power that can remain on the roster for the full length of the season.

If it’s not Jesperi Kotkaniemi or Ryan Poehling next year, then perhaps Jesse Ylonen or Arsen Khisamutdinov bring that element of firepower to the team.

Laval was close this season and would’ve made it interesting down the stretch this season. They may have had a similar finish to their previous selves in the St. Johns IceCaps, who made the playoffs in the final week of the 2016-17 campaign. I believe their close to becoming playoff contenders, but anything after that will depend on the growth of the young talent and maybe some depth signings from Marc Bergevin.