Montreal Canadiens defence has been accused of being a little too defensive and not very creative this season.
That could change in the next few years as a handful of young defence prospects are on the cusp of making their NHL debut in the not too distant future. Many of them are much more offensive minded than the current crop of Ben Chiarot’s and Joel Edmundson’s.
One of those is Gianni Fairbrother and he scored his first pro goal last night.
Fairbrother was the Canadiens 3rd round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. He was coming off a ten goal and 36 point in 64 game campaign with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL when the Habs selected him. In the following two seasons he would play a total of 60 WHL games and he put up 42 points to show a bit of an offensive side to his game.
This season, the 21 year old left shooting defender is playing with the Laval Rocket of the AHL. He signed a three-year entry level contract on March 1, 2021 that begins this season and Fairbrother has performed well to begin the season with the Rocket.
He had one assist in his first three games, but last night he finally found the back of the net for the first time in his pro career. The 6’0″ and 190 pound defender jumped into the rush and made no mistake when he was fed a cross ice pass from J.C. Beaudin. Fairbrother picked up the puck in the slot and fired a wrist shot past Callum Booth in the Providence Bruins goal to give the Rocket a lead just five minutes into the game.
Le but de Fairbrother.
— Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) October 23, 2021
Premier but aux États-Unis depuis un petit bout pour nous 😏
Fairbrother's goal.
First goal in the U.S. in a while for us. 😏#GoRocket pic.twitter.com/4yL6BhEtYK
Fairbrother played three games with the Rocket last season, but he is still a rookie at the AHL level. He has been playing well to begin the season and was on the team’s top pairing with Xavier Ouellet last night.
It is still very early in his pro career, but Fairbrother is showing signs that he is headed in the right direction and he could be pushing for a role with the Canadiens in the near future. With Ben Chiarot, Brett Kulak and Chris Wideman all in the last year of their contracts, Fairbrother could be taking the next step as soon as next season.