Montreal Canadiens: Top 5 Winger Prospects

The Montreal Canadiens have a deep pool of prospects. So deep, we have decided to break down not just their top prospects, but their top prospects by position. Here are their top five winger prospects.

The Montreal Canadiens have built up one of the best pools of prospects in the National Hockey League. Having a great group of young players in the system is obviously better than not having many promising options, but it doesn’t guarantee anything in the future. Some of these players will turn out better than expected but others will never reach their potential.

That is just how it is with prospects. The great thing about the Canadiens system right now is they have tremendous depth. They don’t just have a handful of shiny young prospects that were early picks, they have several nice options at every position.

That is why we decided to take a look at their best prospects by position. We could do a top five prospects, or even top ten, but they would be familiar names you have heard over the past year to two. We wanted to dig a little deeper, so we start today by looking at their top five winger prospects.

The Canadiens really started to build this pipeline two years ago at the 2018 NHL Draft. The Habs made 11 selections that year and followed that up with ten more selections in 2019. They hold 14 picks in the upcoming 2020 draft that were scheduled to host in June, but we may have to wait a little longer to see who they add to their impressive group.

While the Habs had plenty of picks at the past two drafts, they didn’t exactly cover the whole dart board when making selection. Instead, they were very specific about what positions they would target. In 2018, Montreal drafted six centres with their 11 picks. Last year, four of their first five picks were defensemen.

Drafting wingers hasn’t been their priority lately, and it makes sense. Most great teams are built around excellent centres and defenders, and if they happen to end up with too many good centres, they are easier to trade or just move to the wing. So, due to their strategy at the draft table lately, they don’t have a tremendously deep pool of wingers in the system right now.

However, they have a couple of great ones, and a number of interesting winger prospects behind their top two. Also, to be considered a prospect, I believe has to be 23 or under, not played more than 50 career NHL games, and not played more than 20 NHL games in two separate seasons.

5. Arsen Khisamutdinov

The Canadiens went way off the radar when they selected Asren Khisamutdinov in the 6th round of the 2019 draft. It was their eighth selection of the day and after taking Frederik Dichow out of Denmark, it should not have been a surprise when the Habs took someone that most people watching never heard of before.

The first thing that jumps out when looking at Khisamutdinov is his size. Well, maybe the size of his name and then his actual size. The Russian winger is 6’3″ and 205 pounds. He skates well for a man of his size and after just turning 22 in February, he has plenty of time to improve on that stride in the future.

Khisamutdinov played in the Russian Junior league in 2018-19, where he caught the eye of the Canadiens scouts. In 41 games that season, he scored 26 goals and 55 points which put him just outside the top ten in league scoring though he missed close to 20 games. His 1.34 points per game was third among anyone who played more than 20 games in the league.

The big winger missed those 20 games in the minor league because he was called up to help his local KHL team for a while. Though call ups rarely get much ice time in the KHL, Khisamutdinov scored two goals and five points in nine games for Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk.

This season, Khisamutdinov played most of the year in the KHL. He had just three points in 31 games, but again, the KHL can be an unforgiving league for a younger player. He was sent down to the VHL for a stretch, which is basically Russia’s AHL, and he scored nine goals and 13 points in 14 games. He played a little more than a quarter of the VHL schedule and was third on his team in goals scored.

There is an interesting combination of size and scoring ability in Khisamutdinov. He signed his entry-level contract with the Habs so we will see him suiting up in Laval whenever they take the ice again. Russian players coming over to North America are gambles for sure, but a sixth round pick on a huge winger who can score goals is a fine gamble to me.

4. Joel Teasdale

Teasdale went undrafted in 2017, but had a terrific season following that and was signed to an entry-level deal by the Canadiens just before his 2018-19 season with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada began.

In between, the left winger had a terrific year for the Armada. Teadale scored 32 goals and 65 points in 65 games for the QMJHL squad and helped them make a run to the league finals before losing to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. He added eight goals and 21 points in 22 playoff games.

Teasdale was much better the year after signing with the Habs. He was traded from the Armada to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies who were loading up for their own title run. The Repentigny, Quebec native scored 43 goals and 80 points in 66 games for the Armada and Huskies and then led the Huskies in scoring en route to a league championship. The bruising winger scored 14 goals and 34 points in 20 games for the Huskies. He also helped the Huskies capture the Memorial Cup championship, scoring four goals and five points in four games at the Canadian Junior hockey championship.

Unfortunately, Teasdale was injured while training for this season and missed the entire campaign. The 21 year old plays a physical two-way game and would have been a great piece for the Laval Rocket to have at their expense this year. He could have worked his way up the lineup, especially when injuries and call ups to the Habs decimated the Rocket lines.

With next season likely to be pushed back, Teasdale will be more than ready to go when it begins. He should be a solid player for the Rocket, bringing a gritty, physical presence while also being able to chip in his fair share of offence.

3. Rhett Pitlick

The Canadiens targeted a small, but highly skilled winger who was playing High School hockey in Minnesota a year ago. Pitlick jumped a level in competition this season, but showed he could still produce plenty of offence at a higher level.

The Chaska, Minnesota native scored 28 goals and 61 points in 25 games for his high school team before the Habs drafted him with the 131st overall pick in the fifth round of the 2019 draft. Numbers like those jump off the page, but you have to consider the quality of competition in a high school league. Is he an exceptional player? Or is he just one of the bets players in a league that doesn’t have a lot of talent?

Pitlick headed to the Omaha Lancers of the USHL this season and scored 11 points in 17 games. These aren’t fantastic numbers at all, and if he kept up that pace all year it would call into question his quality of competition in high school even further. However, the 5’9″ left winger was then traded to the Muskegon Lumberjacks and his numbers were much better the rest of the season.

He scored 13 goals and 31 points in 28 games for the Lumberjacks. Though he played just over half the season with the Lumberjacks, Pitlick was their fourth highest scorer and was their highest points per game scorer.

Pitlick is off to the University of Minnesota next season where he will be facing much better competition once again. It will be interesting to watch next season to see how the slender winger adjusts to the NCAA competition. He has proved many doubters wrong to this point in his career, if he can do it again next year he will show he is a really interesting NHL prospect.

1. Cole Caufield

The Montreal Canadiens were fortunate that several teams selecting before them value being tall more than being able to score goals at an unbelievable rate in the 2019 NHL Draft. Caufield was without a doubt the best goal scorer in the draft, but 14 teams passed on him because he is never going to be able to dunk a basketball in his life.

Fortunately, the Montreal Canadiens drafted him to be a goal scoring hockey player and not a power forward basketball player. Caufield set many goal scoring records while playing for the United States Under-18 Development Program. Still, many teams were hesitant to select him because he is 5’7″.

Those who doubted him said he couldn’t score like that at the next level. Then Caufield showed up at the next level. The sniper would score 19 goals and 36 points in 36 games for a Wisconsin Badgers team that struggled all year. Caufield was one of their few bright spots on the season and would garner some recognition at the season awards at the end of the year. He was named the Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Year and was named to their All-Rookie Team.

Caufield isn’t the type of player that needs to be set up in the perfect location to score a goal. He has no problem getting open in the offensive zone, can stickhandle and beat an opponent one on one and has ridiculous accuracy when it comes to his wrist shot. His one-timer on the power play is lethal for sure, but his ability to fire a wrist shot perfectly inside where the post and crossbar meet is impeccable.

He will head back to Wisconsin next season, and is hoping to build on his defensive game so he can be trusted in more situations next year. One thing that doesn’t need any work before he suits up in Montreal is his shot. He is already prepared to beat NHL goaltenders.