Canadiens: Alex Barre-Boulet a Useful Addition for the Laval Rocket

Alex Barre-Boulet has been one of the AHL’s best, and he would be a good addition for the Montreal Canadiens as a star for the Laval Rocket.

For the Montreal Canadiens, Alex Barre-Boulet, in a sense, was the one that got away.

In recent years, the Canadiens have begun to dip their toes into the undrafted free agent market a bit more than usual. Over their first three seasons, the Laval Rocket’s roster has seen the occasional sprinkling of homegrown undrafted players, who mostly served in-depth roles with the occasional exception.

In a sense, Barre-Boulet is one such exception, though not for the Canadiens. A native of Montmagny, Quebec, the 5’09 center burst onto the scene in his overage season in the QMJHL. Coming off back to back seasons with at least 80 points, Barre-Boulet exploded for 53 goals and 116 points in 2017-18, leading the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada to the league finals, which they lost to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

Despite this, Barre-Boulet’s small stature and age turned most NHL scouts away, causing him to go undrafted in the NHL entry draft. In the off-season, Barre-Boulet picked up some interest from NHL teams as a more intriguing overaged prospect than normal. I’ve done a few posts in the past on these kinds of players, like trade deadline acquisition Aaron Luchuk and current Rocket forward Alexandre Alain.

While Barre-Boulet, to me, seemed like a no brainer acquisition for the Habs, he ended up signing with the Tampa Bay Lightning instead in March of 2018. The thing is, with most overaged prospects like Luchuk, their ceiling is usually quite low, as they are, in essence, a man amongst boys, being 20 years old in their final junior season. In Barre-Boulet’s case, however, his small stature led to higher interest than most, which he has confirmed so far in the AHL.