Montreal Canadiens Top Prospects: #26 Jack Smith

Montreal Canadiens general manager has compiled a long list of prospects. We are counting down the top 30.

Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin has been building through the draft for the past three years. It has resulted in the Habs having one of the deepest group of prospects in the league.

So, we have been counting down the Canadiens Top 30 prospects.

This started on November 1 with the 30th spot going to Jack Gorniak. The 29th spot went to Jacob LeGuerrier, the 28th place was taken by Otto Leskinen and 27th was Rafael Harvey-Pinard.

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Today we continue the countdown with a surprising recent draft pick. According to our rankings, Jack Smith is the 26th best prospect in the Canadiens pipeline. A group of writers at our site combined our personal rankings of the Habs prospects with the brightest futures and the consensus put Smith 26th.

The St. Cloud, Minnesota native was drafted by the Canadiens in the 4th round of the 2020 NHL Draft. It was a bit of a surprising pick as he wasn’t ranked that early by anyone in the rankings. That doesn’t mean he won’t turn out to be a good pick, but it makes you wonder if he would have been available a little later in the draft.

Smith played high school hockey in Wisconsin last season. He put up eye popping numbers, but it has to be taken with a grain of salt considering he wasn’t facing the same competition that most of the top prospects were.

The 18 year old played 11 games for St Cloud Cathedral and scored 16 goals and 30 points in those games. He also played 16 games in the UMHSEHL which is basically an All-Star league for high school players in the midwest United States. In those contests, which was higher competition, he scored seven goals and 18 points in 16 games.

The 5’11” and 185 pound forward is committed to play for the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2021-22. In the meantime he will suit up for the Sioux Falls Stampede in the USHL. It is certainly a step up from the high school leagues of Wisconsin and will act as a necessary stepping stone before Smith heads to college hockey.

He is a skilled player for sure, but he just needs to prove it on a bigger stage. He will get that chance starting next week when the Stampede hit the ice to begin the 2020-21 campaign.

Smith wouldn’t have caught the eye of a great hockey school like Minnesota-Duluth. He still needs to show he can handle tougher competition before he can get any higher on this list, but a strong season in the USHL would go a long way in ensuring he ranks higher next offseason.