Montreal Canadiens: Top 5 Training Camp Battles To Watch
Position: 4C
Candidates: Ryan Poehling, Jake Evans, Paul Byron
The Incumbent: Jake Evans is the closest thing the Habs have to an incumbent at this position. He did play the final game of the postseason as the fourth line centre on a line with Charles Hudon and Alex Belzile. However, he was scratched for a few games in the postseason as Max Domi took on the fourth line centre role.
Whatever we label Evans from his six postseason games and 13 regular season games from a year ago, he looks like the right man for the fourth line job at the moment.
Evans was a 7th round pick of the Canadiens in 2014 and slowly worked his way up the depth chart from longshot prospect to suiting up for 2020 postseason games. He played four years at Notre Dame where he honed his two-way game and he looked quite comfortable when called up late last season to fill the void left by Nate Thompson’s departure.
Evans was one of the top scorers for the Laval Rocket over the past two seasons, scoring 27 goals and 83 points in 118 career AHL games. He looks ready for a full-time NHL role this season.
The Challenger: Ryan Poehling came to the organization with far more pedigree than Evans. Poehling was a first round draft pick in 2017 and looked great for the next two seasons at St Cloud State, scoring at a point per game pace and dominating the World Juniors at both ends of the ice, being named tournament MVP in 2019.
Things haven’t come so easy to Poehling to begin his pro career. Well, they came exceptionally easy for him in his first NHL game when he scored a hat trick plus the shootout winner against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he struggled in his first full season.
The 22 (as of today) year old scored just one goal and one assist in 27 NHL games this season, and five goals and 13 points in 36 AHL games. It would take a huge leap forward for Poehling to steal the job from Evans, but he was drafted to play down the middle and showed plenty of promise at the position before the 2019-20 season. Don’t be surprised if he looks a lot better this season.
The Dark Horse: Paul Byron could find himself starting the year as the fourth line centre, but it’s admittedly a long shot. The only way this could happen is if the Habs elect to pinch every penny possible early in the year and keep their two-way players like Evans and Poehling on the taxi squad. If they elect to do that, someone would have to move from their more comfortable position on the wing to the middle of the ice. Byron makes the most sense of any of the Habs depth wingers to take on that role.