Montreal Canadiens Top Prospects Countdown: #12: Sean Farrell

Montreal Canadiens’ general manager, Marc Bergevin, has compiled a long list of prospects. We are counting down the top 30. At #12 we have LW Sean Farrell.

The 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 and Rhett Pitlick was 21st. Joni Ikonen began the top 20, Brett Stapley was number 19, Joel Teasdale 18th, Gianni Fairbrother 17th, Cam Hillis was #16, Luke Tuch was 15th, Josh Brook came in at #14 and Jan Mysak was allotted the lucky number 13.

Starting off the top dozen is the only 2020 Habs’ draft pick I literally cheered for: Sean Farrell. He was my personal 36th ranked prospect out of the 135 I considered, so I was pretty excited when the Canadiens nabbed him at 124th overall with the final selection of the fourth round. Interestingly enough, however, I was not the AWH writer with Farrell the highest on my ranking of Habs’ prospects, that would be Ken MacMillan, who had him all the way up at 9th, while Scott Cowan, Teddy Elliot and I reached a consensus #13, but alas, due to Ken’s vote of confidence in Farrell, he leapfrogs Jan Mysak in our rankings.

So who is Sean Farrell? ? Why are we collectively excited for his drafting here at AWH? And why did he fall to the Canadiens, despite having been ranked, on average, the 63rd best 2020 NHL Draft-eligible prospect by the main Scouting networks?

Farrell is a playmaking left-winger who stands at 5’9″ and weighs in at 179 lbs, and therein lies the answer to the latter question. Just as we’ve seen countless times at the NHL draft (Caufield, Point, Debrincat, Gallagher, etc), Farrell fell due to his stature. And Farrell is not one of those Gallagher-type players that plays like he’s 6’2″, 220 lbs. Farrell is diminutive and that should not have mattered, because he has a great toolkit. In 44 USHL games with the powerhouse Chicago Steel, he racked up 15 goals and 41 assists for 56 points.

Farrell isn’t simply a playmaker, he’s a phenomenal playmaker. EliteProspects, who ranked him at #42, described him like this: “An undersized forward with elite playmaking ability”. Note, they do not call his playmaking “borderline elite” or try to dull this assessment in any way. Farrell’s playmaking ability sits comfortably within the top-10 of the 2020 draft class and a legitimate case could be made for top-5 since he sees the ice exceptionally well and isn’t afraid to make a daring pass, while not repetitively turning the puck over either. This is not to say that he is a guarantee to be an elite playmaker at the NHL-level, or even that he makes the NHL at all; after all, there is more to hockey than playmaking, but elite vision and passing ability is certainly a good base to build off of.

As we have established, Farrell’s bread and butter is playmaking, but he does bring more to the table. He fits the Canadiens’ identity, in that he plays a smart defensive game, which never hurts, especially in a diminutive winger who will lack physicality when defending. He also possesses a pretty decent shot, though he refrains from using it, opting to pass instead, 9 times out of 10. Still, this can be refined with time, he will never be a shoot-first player, but he may grow into a dual-threat winger.

One of the question marks with Farrell is his skating. He is sufficiently quick to beat defenders to pucks at the USHL-level, but once he progresses to NCAA, and eventually, pro hockey, his inefficient stride could catch up to him. If he is unable to work past his current shortcomings in this area of the game, the road to an NHL top-six role seems rather unlikely, since an undersized, slightly below-average skating playmaker is not exactly a common sight in this league.

Still, the upside is there, and for a late fourth-round pick, this was a swing well worth taking for the Canadiens. They will hold on to Sean Farrell’s rights for at least five years, so he will have plenty of time to prove his worth. He is committed to playing for Harvard, but since they, along with the other Ivy League Schools, announced that they will not participate in the 2020-21 season, Farrell will only join them next season and will spend this year back with the Chicago Steel, where he has collected 4 points (2 goals and 2 assists) in just a single game at the time of writing. Farrell will have the opportunity to absolutely dominate this season, so keep your eyes open for highlight-reel assists.

Sean Farrell is a fascinating prospect due to his elite playmaking ability and small, but sturdy, stature. The road to the NHL may be a long one, but he just might turn into a top-6 playmaker if everything goes his way. This high ceiling of his is why he is our #12 ranked Canadiens’ prospect.