Jacob Fowler, BC fall 4-1 to BU in the Beanpot championship

Jacob Fowler, the Montreal Canadiens 69th overall pick in the third round of the 2023 NHL Draft has all the makings of a future NHL starting goaltender.

Below are his statistics this season, his sophomore year, entering the Beanpot Championship game against the Boston University Terriers. The Terriers no longer have Macklin Celebrini, and there is a new (Cole) Hutson at BU. But the Terriers, even without Lane Hutson, have managed quite well, especially with the addition of New York Islanders 2024 20th overall selection Cole Eiserman.

Fowler is looking for his 20th win of the season, and some local Boston college hockey supremacy and bragging rights. The Eagles scored the icebreaker, which came off the stick of New York Rangers 2023 23rd overall selection Gabe Perreault. The Perreault name is one that the city of Montreal is familiar with, his father, Yanic, played three seasons with the Canadiens.

Anyway, aside from Perreault's tally, the Eagles' offence pressured the Terriers' defence, but their goalie was sharp. Brandon Svoboda and Cole Hutson answered back with two goals in the middle frame, a little over a minute apart. The Eagles managed to match the Terriers shot for shot, but goaltending has been the difference so far.

Fowler hasn't played poorly, the Terrier's offence has just supported Mikail Yegorov to perfection. BC surrendered a third goal at the 13:52 mark of the third period. New York Islanders 2024 20th overall selection Cole Eiserman fooled Fowler with a backhand tally that beat him between his pads.

Hutson's goal was the dagger, but Eiserman's gave them insurance, and then Gavin McCarthy scored an empty netter to seal a 4-1 win. Fowler did all he could, making 40 saves on 43 shots. Both Kent and Jeff's sons, Jack Hughes and Jack Gorton play for BU, and Lane Hutson was in the building.

So many different connections in this tournament, and some very good NHL talents started out playing in the Beanpot tournament before they got to the NHL. A few names that come to mind who played in the tournament are Vegas Golden Knights centre Jack Eichel and the late Johnny Gaudreau of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Brady Tkachuk and Charlie McAvoy are a couple of notable Terriers' alumni who are stars in the NHL for their respective teams. I would have to think that Hutson was doing some scouting under the pretext of watching Cole. But, I certainly wouldn't be surprised if the Boston area college hockey scene has brought the Habs scouts to Massachusetts for plenty of viewings.

Cayden Primeau making the best of time in the AHL

Since Cayden Primeau was demoted to the waiver wire, and ultimately assigned to the Laval Rocket, he has been extremely comfortable. Now, it's easy to say wow, he is looking brilliant, but the problem with Primeau has never been his play in the American Hockey League. It's that confidence and poise in the AHL that needs to translate to the NHL.

Primeau has been excellent, 10-0, .923 save percentage and a 1.96 goals against average. The team in front of him, however, is not the rebuilding Canadiens. The difference there is that the Habs don't seem to play very confident in front of Primeau, and they have started to not play well, despite who is between the pipes.

I think that Primeau will figure it out, and end up back in the NHL, I'm just not sure that he has a future with the Habs. I could be wrong, but there are guys like Samuel Montembeault, Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler who have the goalie room full. There is even Yevgeni Volokhin developing over in Russia, and the Habs could add another goalie from the 2025 draft class.

I don't enjoy watching player's careers fizzle out, I think that Primeau has served the Habs well, in giving him an opportunity to develop. He should use the confidence from his season down in Laval, hopefully build on it next year, and then be ready once he closer approaches 30, maybe he can carve out something elsewhere.