Montreal Canadiens Top Prospects Countdown: #21 Rhett Pitlick

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, 27th went to Rafael Harvey-Pinard, 26th was Jack Smith, 25th was Jacob Olofsson, 24th was Lukas Vejdemo, the 23rd spot went to Alexander Gordin and Blake Biondi came in at 22nd.

Today, we continue counting down this terrific group of prospects with the 21st ranked player in the pipeline, Rhett Pitlick. The slender, skilled winger was taken in the 5th round of the 2019 NHL Draft, with the 131st overall selection. Though he is a bit undersized, his combativeness and compete level compare more favourably to players like Brendan Gallagher and Paul Byron, and not small forwards who tend to be pushed around.

That is not to say Pitlick is a future 30, or even 20, goal scorer at the NHL level. But it does suggest no one should write him off simply because of his stature.

Pitlick was drafted, like Blake Biondi and Jack Smith, after a strong showing at the high school level. In fact, the three players played in the same league together in 2018-19, with Pitlick leading the trio in scoring with 61 points in 25 games. Those are impressive offensive totals, but have to be taken with a grain of salt due to the lower quality of competition.

Pitlic switched to the USHL for the 2019-20 campaign. He started somewhat slowly with four goals and 11 points in 17 games for the Omaha Lancers. A midseason trade changed his fortunes as he scored 13 goals and 31 points in 28 games with the Muskegon Lumberjacks.

So far this season, Pitlick has been held scoreless in a pair of games for the Lumberjacks. Next year, he is committed to the University of Minnesota which has a great hockey program. It will be a big step for the slightly undersized winger, but Pitlick isn’t scared of a battle and should adapt well to the NCAA in a depth role right away.

For now, he will look to get on the scoresheet for the first time this season when the Lumberjacks are back in action. After a great showing in Muskegon last season, Pitlick is expected to put up impressive offensive numbers this season.

If he does as expected in the USHL and transitions nicely to the NCAA, comparisons to useful bottom six players like Jake Evans and Paul Byron will continue to grow louder.