The Montreal Canadiens recently signed Jordan Harris out of college after he completed his final season with the Northesatern Huskies.
Harris wrapped up the fourth year of his NCAA career with an early exit at the NCAA National Championship tournament. He had the right to wait until August and become a UFA or sign with the Canadiens and thankfully, he chose the latter.
Another Habs prospect is going to have the option of making that same choice soon.
Brett Stapley is another draft pick of the Canadiens that is in his fourth college season. His decision on whether to sign with the Habs has been put on hold since his team has had a little more success this year than Harris’ Northeasten Huskies.
In fact, Stapley’s Denver Pioneers are one of just two teams left standing in college hockey right now.
The national championship game is set to be played tonight between Denver and Minnesota State.
Denver has been a powerhouse all season, and Stapley has been a big part of it. The 7th round pick from the 2018 NHL Draft plays a terrific two-way game. He takes key face-offs, kills penalties and is often given tough defensive matchups.
Stapley has been Denver’s third line centre all season, and plays a role on the team’s second power play unit. Still, he managed to put up 17 goals and 42 points in 40 games this season, without playing alongside the team’s top wingers or ever getting a sniff on the top power play.
Aside from last season which was an odd Covid shortened and injury plagued year for Stapley, his production at college pretty much mimics Jake Evans. Evans played for Notre Dame, and though he had a point per game each of his last two seasons, he was playing on the top line and getting lots of power play time.
Stapley is an interesting prospect that could develop into a solid bottom six centre for the Canadiens in the near future.
First, he will try to win a national championship. Stapley helped the team get here by scoring their first goal in their semifinal win on Thursday night.
𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙊 𝙉𝙄𝘾𝙀 𝙬𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙏𝙒𝙄𝘾𝙀#FrozenFour #PioneerTogether pic.twitter.com/peZ1a2YTqG
— Denver Hockey (@DU_Hockey) April 7, 2022
Denver was able to sneak past Michigan, who were stacked with soon-to-be NHL talent. Denver won that game 3-2 in overtime on Thursday night and will now play tonight for a national title.
Once again, they will lean heavily on Stapley for his defensive acumen down the middle of the ice and ability to score over a point per game.
It will be interesting to see if he signs with the Canadiens next week as he would add some valuable depth to the Laval Rocket lineup in their push for the playoffs.
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