Montreal Canadiens Top Prospects Countdown: #9 Jayden Struble

By Ken MacMillan | Nov 25, 2020

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - JUNE 22: Jayden Struble reacts after being selected by the Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

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 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, Sean Farrell ranked 12th, Cale Fleury was 11th and Noah Juulsen was 10th.

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That brings us to yet another defenceman who will not be pushed around: Jayden Struble. He was selected in the second round of the 2019 NHL Draft with the 46th overall pick. He was ranked as high as 7th by me, and as low as 12th by Teddy Elliott in our site’s rankings of the Habs top prospects. Scott Cowan had Struble 10th on his list and he came in an 9th on Sebastian High’s ranking.

The Rhode Island native was playing Prep School hockey in the 2018-19 season before the Habs selected him. It wasn’t the highest level of hockey a player his age could be playing, but he certainly made the most of his time with St. Sebastian’s School. He scored ten goals and 40 points in 28 games that season after potting 12 goals and 30 points in 30 games the previous campaign.

More impressive than his offensive numbers was Struble’s strength and defensive zone play. He is an absolute rock of a defenceman who is far stronger than his 6’0″ and 205 pound frame would suggest. When he was drafted, general manager Marc Bergevin and Assistant GM Trevor Timmins raved about Struble’s work ethic and fitness level.

The 19 year old left shooting blue liner brought that work ethic to Northeastern University as a freshman last season. He scored three goals and ten points in 21 games, but proved to be a strong, smart, defensive presence for the Huskies as well. He missed the second half of the season with injury, but was back in action over the summer.

Struble took part in USA’s World Junior camp in the offseason and is on the short list to play at the World Juniors next month.

Now, the physical two-way presence has to wait until Northeastern finally hits the ice to play a game. Their schedule was recently postponed once again and they now aren’t scheduled to take part in a regular season game until December 18th. If Struble make the USA World Junior team, he will be at their camp at that time, meaning his next real game after being off for close to a year could be in Edmonton on the World Junior stage.

When we do finally see him put on a. Huskies jersey again, Struble should be playing a huge role on the blue line for them. Fellow Habs prospect Jordan Harris will be on the top pairing and Struble could be joining him at times, forming a heck of a shutdown duo at the college hockey level.

While we aren’t sure when Struble will be in action, it won’t take him long to impress the Canadiens management team once he does. After adding players like Josh Anderson and Joel Edmundson this offseason, it is clear Bergevin likes and is targeting players with some grit to go along with skill.

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That perfectly describes Struble who has all the tools to be a shutdown defender on the Canadiens second pairing in the not-so-distant future.