Montreal Canadiens: Big Weekend For Habs NCAA Prospects

The Montreal Canadiens are likely keeping their focus on the upcoming trade deadline that is just over a week away.

As they sit near the bottom of the NHL standings, the team is sure to continue selling veteran players for more prospects and draft picks.

While piling up draft picks for the upcoming NHL Draft in MOntreal is the team’s focus, many of their recent draft picks are in the middle of a huge weekend for their current teams.

The Canadiens have nine prospects that played college hockey in the United States this season. The NCAA conference playoffs are well underway and most of those Habs prospects are playing big games this weekend that could determine whether they make it to the NCAA Championship tournament or not.

The team’s that win their conference championships, which are all decided on March 19th, will automatically be entered into the 16 team NCAA Championship tournament. The rest of the teams are placed in the tournament based on their records and strength of schedule. That championship tournament begins on March 24th and the national title will be handed out on April 9th.

So, who is playing this weekend and how has their season gone so far? Let’s take a quick spin around the NCAA to check in on the Habs prospects playing college hockey this weekend.

Luke Tuch

Luke Tuch plays for Boston University where he has carved out a top six role as a power forward. He is 6’2″ and 203 pounds and is regularly running players over along the boards to separate them from the puck. BU struggled mightily early in the season but have been one of the best teams in NCAA since Christmas.

Tuch has six goals and ten points in 25 games as the team plays the Hockey East Quarterfinal game this evening against University of Connecticut. UConn plays host but the two teams finished with same number of points in the standings.

The game is at 4:30 PM EST and the winner moves on to the Hockey East final four which will crown a conference champion next weekend. BU is currently ranked 18th in the nation, so they will need a very strong showing over the next couple weekends to make it to the national tournament.

Jordan Harris and Jayden Struble

Also in the Hockey East conference is Jordan Harris and Jayden Struble. They both play for Northeastern who finished first in the conference thanks to terrific goaltending and strong defensive play that was anchored by the two Habs prospects.

Harris is the team’s top defender, and was recently named the conference’s best defensive defenceman. He scored 19 points in 36 games in his fourth and final college season. The Northeastern Huskies will rely heavily on this Habs prospect in all situations, like they have all season long.

Struble plays on the team’s second pairing and is a much more rugged and physical player. He is also a fine skater in his own right and has no worries about jumping into the play in the offensive end. The 20 year old is in his third season with the Huskies and will play a lot at even strength (behind Harris), run the second power play (also behind Harris) and kill penalties as well.

Northeastern is ranked 14th in the country right now, so a loss tonight could drop them out of the national tournament altogether and end Harris’ college career.

Sean Farrell

Sean Farrell was a fourth round pick of the Canadiens in the 2020 NHL Draft. He is a highly skilled left winger that prefers to create offensive chances for others rather than shoot the puck himself. This is his first college season with Harvard and he has had a great year, scoring 19 points in 19 games.

Harvard is taking on RPI this weekend in a Best-of-3 quarterfinals. Harvard won Game 1 last night in overtime, though Farrell was held scoreless. A win tonight would advance Harvard to the ECAC final four next weekend. Their semi-finals is on Friday night and is single game elimination with the winner-take-all (including a trip to the national tournament) game next Saturday.

Harvard is ranked 21st right now so they will need to win their conference to advance to the big tournament.

Blake Biondi

The NCHC might be the toughest conference in all of college hockey and it took Blake Biondi a little getting used to after jumping straight from High School hockey. He scored just five points in 26 games last season, either playing fourth line wing, which meant mostly sitting on the bench, or sitting out the game as a healthy scratch.

This season, Biondi moved up to the third line, but his scoring really took off. He had 16 goals and 26 points in 37 games, so far.

Biondi plays for Minnesota-Duluth who finished 5th in the NCHC in the regular season. They are playing the quarterfinal series this weekend against St. Cloud State (Ryan Poehling’s former squad). Biondi scored last night in Game 1, helping Minnesota-Duluth to a 5-2 win. They will look to advance to the conference semi-finals with a win tonight.

His team is ranked 9th in the nation so they are pretty safe when it comes to making the national tournament, whether they win their series or not.

Brett Stapley

Also in the NCHC is Habs 7th round pick from 2018, Brett Stapley. He plays a third line centre role for Denver, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a pivotal piece in their lineup. He kills penalties, wins face-offs, is strong defensively and also put up 40 points in 35 games so far this season.

Denver won last night, 5-2, with Stapley scoring a goal and adding an assist. Denver won their conference regular season title and will look to advance to the conference semi-finals with a win tonight.

They are ranked third in the entire country so they will be one of the 16 teams playing for a national title later this month.

Rhett Pitlick

Rhett Pitlick was a 5th round pick of the Canadiens back in 2019. He played a couple more seasons of Junior hockey before beginning his college career this season as a 20 year old. He started a bit slow, with just four points in his first ten games, but he has been a key contributor for Minnesota, one of the top teams in the country, ever since.

He finished the season strong, scoring 13 points in his final 15 games and helping Minnesota steal the Big Ten Conference regular season title away from Michigan. Minnesota had a bye through the quarterfinals last weekend and will play Penn State in the conference semifinal game tonight. The winner advances to the conference championship game next Saturday.

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