Montreal Canadiens Top Prospects Countdown: #16: Cam Hillis

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, Joel Teasdale was 18th and Gianni Fairbrother was 17th on our list.

That brings us to the midway mark of our countdown. We have seen some great prospects already but we are only through half the list now that we have reached Cam Hillis. There wasn’t a lot of variance in the rankings of Hillis. I had him 17th and Sebastian High ranked him 16th. Teddy Elliott gave him the highest ranking out of our writers at 15 and Scott Cowan placed Hillis 19th on his personal list.

So, it is pretty obvious we have him slated as a middle of the pack prospects in the Habs rankings. The reason for that is there is a lot to like in Hillis game, but he is not likely to become a superstar, or even a top six player at the NHL level.

The 5’11” and 170 pound right shot centre was drafted in the third round of the 2018 NHL Draft by the Canadiens. He had just played his first season in the Ontario Hockey League and scored 20 goals and 59 points in 60 games for the Guelph Storm. He led the league in assists by a first year player and was named to the All-Rookie Team at the end of the season.

Hillis also suited up for Canada at the World Under-18 Tournament that season where he scored two assists in five games.

The Oshawa, Ontario native played two more seasons in Guelph. The 2018-19 season was an injury riddled campaign for Hillis, as he scored 22 points in 33 games. The Storm were stacked, with fellow Habs prospect Nick Suzuki leading them to an OHL Championship, but Hillis only played two playoff games.

This season was a great bounce back for the two-way centre. He scored 24 goals and 83 points in 62 games for the Storm before the season was cancelled.

The Canadiens had some tough decisions to make when it came to contracts this offseason. Teams can only have 50 players under contract at any time, and wouldn’t be able to sign all of their CHL prospects. They had to pick and choose between Hillis, Cole Fonstand, Alan McShane and Samuel Houde.

They ultimately decided they only had room for one of them, and it became clear by the end of the season that Hillis was the most deserving. He signed his entry-level contract in May and should begin his pro career whenever the Laval Rocket get back into action.

Once the AHL does get going, it will be interesting to see what kind of role Hillis carves out for himself. With a handful of centres ahead of him on the depth chart, like Lukas Vejdemo, Laurent Dauphin and possibly Ryan Poehling if he is in the minors, it won’t be easy for Hillis to get prominent ice time.

He is a creative playmaker and could bring some offence to the table at the AHL level. But he is going to have to quickly prove he is more worthy of a top nine role than a veteran player.