Montreal Canadiens Top Prospects Countdown #11: Cale Fleury

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, Gianni Fairbrother was 17th, Cam Hillis was 16th on our list, Luke Tuch was 15th, Josh Brook was 14th, Jan Mysak was 13th and Sean Farrell ranked 12th.

This brings us to number 11 on the list. Just outside the top ten we find Cale Fleury. He was ranked 11th on Scott Cowan’s list, 12th on Sebastian High’s list, as high as 5th on Teddy Elliott’s ranking and as low as 15th on my own ranking of the Habs best prospects. That is a fairly wide range for a player that nearly cracked the top ten.

Fleury is an interesting prospect because he has the potential, and he showed early last season he already has the ability, to eat up minutes at the NHL level without making mistakes. Fleury played the first 41 games of the Canadiens season, and though he brought very little offensively, he proved to be a punishing defensive player who could be trusted to handle third pairing duties.

The Calgary, Alberta native did an admirable job defensively as a rookie in those 41 games with the Habs. He scored just one goal and didn’t register an assist, but he was in the right spot defensively, blocked shots, delivered thunderous body checks on a regular basis and limited the number of mistakes he made on the ice.

Fleury just turned 22 earlier this week and had an impressive rookie campaign with the Laval Rocket in 2018-19. Again, he wasn’t an offensive force, but his nine goals and 23 points in 60 games show there is some offence in his game.

The Canadiens have added some defenders to their lineup for next season which might make it more difficult for Fleury to make the team out of training camp. However, the type of defenceman that Bergevin has targeted makes you believe he would be a big fan of Fleury’s game. Bergevin traded for and signed Joel Edmundson and got Alexander Romanov signed to an entry level contract. Both are big, physical blue liners, much like Fleury.

At 6’1″ and 205 pounds, Fleury  isn’t the biggest or meanest player on the ice, but he plays with a very physical edge and protects the front of the Habs net from opposing traffic.

He showed tremendous leadership qualities and two-way abilities to his game before the Canadiens drafted him in the third round of the 2017 NHL Draft. Fleury played most of his Junior career on a terrible Kootenay Ice team that was on the verge of playing its way into being moved to Winnipeg. Once Fleury was moved to a contending team in his final Junior year, he scored 41 points in 51 games for the Regina Pats in what was his last Junior season.

Though he eventually proved to be an offensive weapon at the WHL level, and had decent point totals in his first AHL season, there are still lots of questions about Fleury’s ability to prove anything offensively at the NHL level.

Fleury’s strength is defence, and he already proved at the ago of 21 that he could play a sound defensive game for the Canadiens. There is plenty of value in that alone. If he can find a way to produce offence like he did with the Laval Rocket in his first AHL season, Fleury will become a two-way force for the Canadiens.