The Montreal Canadiens are sure to be sellers ahead of the March 21st trade deadline, but a few of their prospects are loading up for championships runs in their respective leagues.
2020 first round pick Kaiden Guhle was recently traded from the Prince Albert Raiders who sit outside the playoff picture, to the Edmonton Oil Kings who could finish first in the WHL standings.
So, Guhle has a real shot at winning a championship and moving on to the 2022 Memorial Cup in Saint John, New Brunswick in June. He isn’t the only Habs prospect on a team that has a real chance to go on a deep run in the Canadian Junior leagues this season.
Riley Kidney is playing for what looks like a middling QMJHL team if you take a quick glance at the standings. They sit 6th in the Eastern Conference with a 15-11-3 record in 29 games this season. Overall, they sit 9th in the standings of a league with 18 teams. That is as middle of the pack as it possibly gets.
But, the team is built for a deep run in the postseason.
First of all, in the offseason, they traded their next two first round picks, plus a couple of later picks and a prospect, for Hendrix Lapierre. The Washington Capitals first round pick then started the season in the NHL and missed the beginning of the QMJHL season. He has since returned to play 11 games and has 18 points in those games. The Titan are 8-4-1 since Lapierre made his debut on November 13th.
The QMJHL trade deadline is approaching on January 5th, and the Titan have doubled down on this roster by making a huge trade earlier this week.
The Titan shipped out yet another first round pick, this one in 2024, a 2022 second round pick and prospect Cael MacDonald for Felix Lafrance and Thomas Belgarde from the Chcoutimi Sagueneens.
Lafrance has been on fire this season, and is currently leading the QMJHL in scoring with 23 goals and 50 points in 26 games. He is a right winger that will obviously step right onto the team’s top scoring line and make their power play, which is already one of the league’s best, even better. He is a 20 year old undrafted winger who was really good last season scoring over a point per game, but has really broken out this season and gives the Titan a potential scoring champion.
Belgarde is no slouch himself. He is a 19 year old centre who has scored 12 goals and 31 points in 30 games this season. He gives the Titan a third centre that is scoring over a point per game this season, adding to Lapierre and Kidney down the middle.
It will be interesting to see how the Titan put their lines together when everyone is playing. Will they go with Lapierre, Kidney and Belgarde all down the middle? Or will one of them slide over to the wing to load up the top six with the six point per game players they have.
Kidney himself has 41 points in 29 games and is one of the best Faceoff guys in the QMJHL. So, it is unlikely that he will be moving from a top six centre role. However, it is quite likely the player already scoring over 1.4 points per game is going to have even better wingers for the rest of the season.
It is also likely that this season lasts an awful lot longer than most teams who are sitting 9th in the 18-team league standings at this time of year.
Look out for the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in the playoffs, as Riley Kidney’s team just added a ton of firepower.