Montreal Canadiens: Top 31 Prospects – #20 Mattias Norlinder

Montreal Canadiens fans don’t get a lot of breaking news in the month of August, so here at A Winning Habit, we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 31 prospects currently in the Habs organization. Each player was carefully deliberated by our writers and ranked accordingly. Today, we continue with our 20th-ranked prospect, Mattias Norlinder.

Mattias Norlinder was drafted by the Canadiens in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft out of Sweden. Norlinder then spent the following two seasons in Sweden before joining the Laval Rocket and Montreal Canadiens in 2021-22. Only for Norlinder to return to Sweden, on loan to finish out the year.  While In Sweden, Norlinder impressed with highlight reel plays and solid numbers, particularly in the post-season.

But since coming to North America, the hype has died down slightly. That isn’t to say that all hope for Norlinder has been lost, but rather that it’s been cooled off a little. Part of that is due to Norlinder not making headway the way he had previously done in Sweden. And part of it has been because of the influx of talent of left-shot defensemen just since Norlinder was drafted. This includes the likes of Kaiden Guhle and Arber Xhekaj in the NHL, with Lane Huston soon to join them.

Last season in Laval, the Swede played in 67 games and scored 19 points, which isn’t bad for a rookie defenseman. In 2021-22, he played in just six games for Laval, as well as six games for the Canadiens. He’s still very new to playing hockey in North America and, as such, is still developing and adjusting.

So, it’ll be worth watching Laval this year to see if Norlinder can take another step in his development and earn a more significant role with the Rocket. Norlinder is undoubtedly classified as an offensive defenseman who is excellent with the puck on his stick. He uses his great vision and hockey IQ to create offense, which led to the aforementioned highlight reel plays in Sweden.

Where he struggles is defensively, which is hard to ignore when you play defense. His hockey IQ, which is such an asset offensively, doesn’t translate to defense quite well, and he’s not overly physical, despite having a decent frame at 6’1″ and 194 lbs. This makes it hard to see an impactful (Top Four) future for him if improvements in these areas aren’t made.

The Canadiens have an abundance of talented left-shot defensemen, including ones that can provide offense. This makes Norlinder somewhat expendable, or at the very least, it makes his path to the NHL that much harder. A big season in the AHL could certainly help, and the opportunity will likely be there, but we need to see that before we bank on it.

A few seasons ago, Norlinder would’ve been much higher on this list, but things have changed both for the Canadiens prospect pool and Norlinder. At this point, if Norlinder can become a 7th defenseman for the Canadiens, similar to what Chris Wideman now and Erik Gustafsson before him, that’s a win.