Comparing Owen Beck and Oliver Kapanen's NHL readiness

The Montreal Canadiens have done a fine job of shoring up their centre depth, both organizationally and in their prospect pool.

Captain Nick Suzuki leads the pack from the number-one centre perch, while Kirby Dach has done his earnest in recent games to stake his claim for the second-line role. This leaves the bottom six centres balanced out by Jake Evans and Christian Dvorak. I believe that Dvorak will be gone by the end of the season, and I would make a serious case to get Evans re-signed for term.

There are two reasons that I believe the Canadiens can move on from Dvorak, and for those same reasons, Evans should be retained. Oliver Kapanen, who was with the Canadiens for the first nine games of the season, has minimum third-line centre potential. And Owen Beck, a year younger than Kapanen, has roughly the same potential.

For now, Kapanen is developmentally ahead of Beck, which is normal because Kapanen is a year older than Beck. Beck now has three NHL games under his belt, two of those coming in the last two games. Kapanen, however, has nine games with the Habs and has been playing professionally (Finnish Liiga) since the 2021-2022 season.

The Canadiens announced on Wednesday morning that the club loaned Beck to the Laval Rocket, signalling the end of his first stint of the 2024-2025 season. He has been great with the Rocket, and while I think two games are a little too few to get his feet wet, I believe that he needs to stay in Laval for the rest of the season. Kapanen, on the other hand, has been playing in the Swedish Hockey League with Timra IK, and the 21-year-old centre has scored 18 points (seven goals, & 11 assists) through 19 games.

I think that the Habs would like to stay relatively young and retain some veterans also, and I think that Evans, 28, won't turn 30 until June 2027, fits the mould of what the Habs want. I also believe that if Evans leaves, the Habs will miss what he brings (reliable faceoffs on the penalty kill, in overtime and to close out games. In no way do I believe Dvorak should be kept over Evans, and I think that if Evans isn't taking those important draws, then it's Suzuki who will.

Evans and Suzuki would be a nice duo, to help Beck and Kapanen along when they reach the NHL. I think Evans provides too much value to the Canadiens, to consider anything other than extending his for some term. He impacts the team right now, and as far as developing rookie forwards goes, Evans's two-way game will be a massive benefit.

Kent Hughes needs to strike a fine balance

I think as early as the March 2025 Trade Deadline, Kent Hughes is going to be one of the busier general managers in the league. Does he decide to move on from Mike Matheson or David Savard? Jayden Struble hasn't been playing, so he could fill one hole, and there could be an option in Laval.

Up front, Joel Armia could get some looks approaching the deadline, and Dvorak, while he won't impact the goal total, is a good veteran fourth-line centre. Then there is Evans, who I don't think will be traded, or left without an extension beyond late April, or early May. There are plenty of options, and Hughes has a trove of draft picks and a deep prospect pool to work with.

It's unclear what Hughes will decide to do, and there are still plenty of games to play up until the trade deadline, but he could help the team tremendously with another Alexandre Carrier-type acquisition.