Canadiens: Three Prospects Raising Their Stock This Season

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The Montreal Canadiens are having a bit of an up and down season. We have seen this story before and it has not ended well when the team has short bursts of strong play and some lengthy periods of malaise as well.

This year’s team started off the season 5-2-1 and also had some great showings against the Vegas Golden Knights on the road and on home ice against the Boston Bruins. However, they are also prone to having a night where almost nothing offensively happens, like their most recent game.

The Canadiens had one shot on goal in the first period against the Los Angeles Kings and never found the back of the net in a 4-0 loss. There was nothing offensively, and almost no emotion as the team seemed ready for the rookie dinner that was happening after the game before the puck even dropped.

It is games like that one that remind us fans that it could be a long season. When the team is hovering around a .500 points percentage in November and decide not to show up, you have to worry about what type of effort we will see in February and March.

So, we should look at how some of the team’s top prospects are performing so far this season. While the Habs roster has not surprised us that much, let’s take a look at some of the team’s recent draft picks that are off to surprisingly great starts to the season.

These three players have really improved their stock so far this season and have been playing a much better game than we could have expected coming into the season. This isn’t to suggest they are the team’s top prospects, as Lane Hutson and Joshua Roy are still two of the team’s best prospects, but their strong play this season isn’t shocking.

But these three players have made us sit up and take notice in the early stages of this season.

Filip Mesar

The Montreal Canadiens drafted Filip Mesar in the first round of the 2022 NHL Draft. He had been playing pro in Slovakia before being selected, so there was some debate as to where he should continue his development.

Since he was drafted out of a pro league in Europe, he could pretty much play wherever the team wanted him to go. Obviously he could have played in the NHL if he was ready, but most late first round picks are not. So, he could have stayed in Europe and played pro there, joined the Laval Rocket and played in the American Hockey League or head to Junior and play for the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League.

Ultimately, the team decided he would go to the OHL and play Junior, and it was kind of expected he would dominate at that level after playing a couple of years of pro hockey. Mesar was good for the Rangers, but had some slow stints and ultimately finished the season with 17 goals and 51 points in 52 games.

It was solid production, but more was expected. Mesar returned to the Rangers this season after playing a couple of games with the Rocket to begin the season, and he is absolutely on fire.

Of course, being a year older you woudl expect him to score over a point per game like he did last season, but Mesar is pretty much piling up two points per night. He had 22 points in his first 11 games of the season and now has 24 points in 13 games which puts him first in the league in points per game at 1.92.

You would have expected Mesar to be good, but he has been exceptional at the OHL level this season. The 19 year old suddenly looks like a potential future top six option for the Canadiens after a so-so first year in North America.

Bogdan Konyushkov

Bogdan Konyushkov was an unheard of prospect when the Canadiens drafted him in the fourth round of the 2023 NHL Draft. He had been passed over twice, as he was first eligible for the draft in 2021, but the Russian defenseman finally heard his name called last June.

He played the 2022-23 season in the KHL with Torpedo Novgorod. The 5’11” right shot defender scored two goals and 25 points in 64 games, sticking at the highest level as a young player which is not often the case in Russia. He was sent down to their Junior affiliate after their KHL season was done and he scored six points in six playoff games to help win a MHL championship.

This season, Konyushkov has taken on an even bigger role and is excelling. He has been scoring steadily at about half of a point per game all season and now has three goals and 18 points in 35 contests. His production puts him just outside the top ten in scoring among defenders in the KHL, and he is still 20 years old while most of the blue liners ahead of him are former NHL players with several years of pro experience.

That’s impressive for a player who was basically unheard of, was a bit of a shocking pick even in the fourth round, and had been completely passed over in 2021 and 2022. He may not have been well known then, but he has put himself on the NHL’s radar with his strong play this season and the Canadiens are looking very smart for rolling the dice on him with a middle round draft pick.

Florian Xhekaj

Another player that was drafted in 2023 by the Canadiens, and had many fans and draft pundits scratching their heads was Florian Xhekaj. Like Konyushkov, he was also eligible to be drafted in the 2022 NHL Draft but did not get selected.

That is because Xhekaj was not even playing in the OHL in his draft season, but in an Ontario Junior league a step below the OHL. He did lead his team in scoring, though he did not light up the league with 40 points in 48 games, but it was not enough to get the attention of the NHL.

Last season, in his 18 year old Junior season, Xhekaj joined the Hamilton Bulldogs, where his older brother Arber had played the previous season and helped win an OHL championship. Florian played a similar gritty, hard nosed style and scored 13 goals and 25 points in 68 games while adding another goal and three points in six playoff games.

Those are not exactly the type of offensive numbers that scream NHL prospect, especially when you consider he is already past his initial draft season. The selection was mostly mocked online after it was made, as many fans could not imagine him turning into an NHL player and they saw the pick as a favour to older brother Arber who was never drafted.

Well, Florian is showing an offensive side to his game that no one could have predicted this season. In 20 games he has scored 11 goals, nearly matching all of last year’s already, and he has 18 points, putting him just under a point per game pace.

No one expected this kind of offensive output from Xhekaj this season. His points per game is about 2.5 times higher than it was last season, and while you expect players to score more as they get older, no one takes that kind of a leap from one year to the next. It has been a shocking offensive breakout from Xhekaj that turns him from questionable draft pick to potential pain-in-the-neck third line winger in the future for the Canadiens.

Next. Habs Suddenly Have Plethora Of Great Goalie Prospects. dark

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