Montreal Canadiens Top Prospects Countdown: #17 Gianni Fairbrother

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, Blake Biondi came in at 22nd, Rhett Pitlick was 21st, Joni Ikonen began the top 20, Brett Stapley was number 19 and Joel Teasdale was 18th on our list.

Wd continue our countdown today with a look at Gianni Fairbrother. There was a relatively strong consensus between our writers that had Fairbrother ranked in the teens of the Habs prospects. He was slotted in at 18th on my list, was 17th on Scott Cowan’s ranking, 15th on Sebastian High’s ranking and was a little lower on Teddy Elliott’s, coming in at 23.

Fairbrother was a part of the run on left defensemen that the Canadiens made in the 2019 NHL Draft. After selecting Cole Caufield in the first round of that draft, the Habs took Jayden Struble and Mattias Norlinder in the second round, before targeting Fairbrother and then Jacob LeGuerrier later on. All four of those players are left defenders.

Fairbrother was taken in the third round, with the 77th overall selection. He was playing with the Everett Silvertips in the Western Hockey League leading up to his draft. The North Vancouver, British Columbia native had scored ten goals and 36 points in 64 games for the Silvertips in the 2018-19 season.

At 6’0″ and close to 200 pounds, Fairbrother is a good sized defender, and his skating and offensive instincts are solid as well. After being drafted by the Habs, he was off to a hot start to the 2019-20 season with five goals and 25 points in 37 games. His season ended earlier than most due to injury, but he clearly had taken a step forward.

It was expected that Fairbrother would return to the Silvertips this season to play his overaged 20 year old season in the WHL. Then, the Habs would have to make a decision on whether to sign him to his entry-level contract or allow him to become a free agent.

It should have been a big season for the Habs prospect in the WHL, but that league isn’t scheduled to even start until January. Fairbrother was injured last January so that would have meant a full year without playing a competitive game.

So, Fairbrother is currently suiting up for the Nanaimo Clippers in the BCHL. The league is a step down overall from the WHL, but it should help him get back into game shape and be ready to hit the ground running when the WHL does begin its season.

So far, Fairbrother has one assist in five games with the Clippers. Having not played since January, and having to recover from a significant injury would surely lead to a slow start. It will be interesting to see how well Fairbrother can play in the WHL after getting up to speed with the Clippers.

He has decent size, skating and offensive skills for sure. Fairbrother could be an interesting piece on the Laval Rocket in 2021-22.