5. Noah Warren, RD, Gatineau Olympiques, QMJHL, 6’5″, 224 lbs, (62g: 5g, 24p), Rounds 2-3.
I first watched Noah Warren play alongside my good friend and A Winning Habit co Site Expert, Patrick Lortie, from the press box in Gatineau in October (sat just 15 feet to the left of now dismissed Canadiens AGM and head of scouting, Trevor Timmins), and we both fell in love with his game that day. Warren is the type of player whose game most would describe as “honest”. He just plays the game the right way and has a great understanding of his own strengths and weaknesses.
As his size would suggest, Warren’s physicality is utterly dominant in the QMJHL. He wins every puck battle he enters, he protects the puck with brutal effectiveness, and he can absolutely rock opponents with big hits, but the key is that his physicality is very functional and used with real purpose. He knows how to turn it into the greatest possible advantage for his team.
https://twitter.com/EPRinkside/status/1506789617474813956?s=20&t=KFQUJALIlWc696lM74V_aA
Beyond the physicality, Warren is extremely mobile, he’s a smooth skater who can pick up an impressive amount of speed when he really gets going. He’s also an extremely intelligent player. His defensive awareness is a standout quality. His positioning is consistently good. He clears the front of the net very effectively. He maintains a tight gap and suffocates most rushes he defends. As a whole, he is an extremely reliable defender who makes for an easy NHL projection.
Warren is also very composed with the puck on his stick, which is especially notable on retrievals in his own end. When pressured, he diffuses the situation by making a simple play to secure possession, be it an effective stickhandle paired with a weight shift to change direction on a dime, an accurate pass to an open target, or just effective puck protection.
In the offensive zone, Warren has shown flashes of playmaking ability, where he drifts into the high slot and wires a no-look pass onto the tape of a teammate’s stick, and he has a rocket of shot, but he mainly plays a conservative style and defers to his partner and the forwards to make the creative offensive plays.
While the offensive upside is limited with Warren, he has significant upside as a puck-moving defensive defenceman who dominates physically and impresses with his calmness and mobility. I think his floor is as a 6th defenceman, but if he hits, he could be a minute-munching #4 who compliments a high-octane offensive partner perfectly… Lane Hutson, for example. Warren is a modern defensive defenceman who I prefer to his teammate Tristan Luneau who will surely be selected before him, and would make a wonderful addition to the Canadiens’ shallow depth in the right defence prospect pool.