Montreal Canadiens: Emil Heineman Scores First NHL Goal

So far this has been a pretty exciting start to the season for these young Montreal Canadiens. Cole Caufield is scoring at a 82 goal pace with 3 goals in 3 games, Lane Hutson has been nothing short of dominant, and Samuel Montembeault has been perfect through 4 seasons. Add Emil Heineman's first career NHL goal to the list.

Heineman isn't the biggest name in the Montreal Canadiens' prospect pool, but he has made his way onto the team, and scored a goal in his second game this season, and 6th career NHL game.

Heineman wasn't originally drafted by the Canadiens, he was drafted by the Florida Panthers all the way back in 2020, but was traded with a second round pick to the Calgary Flames for Sam Bennett.

Then, he came to the Canadiens in a stellar deal. Veteran forward, team and fan favourite Tyler Toffoli was rented out to the Flames for a haul including Heineman, a first round pick which became Filip Mesar and a fifth round pick which became Yevgeni Volokhin.

That was in 2022, and the next year Heineman made enough of a splash to get a 4 game look, but he failed to record a point. After being a healthy scratch against the Boston Bruins in the revolving door of the bottom 6 forwards on the Habs, he struck early against Ottawa.

As a lot of the offence has come from this year on the Habs, this play started with Lane Hutson, and a brilliant rush up the ice. While Hutson did lose the puck in the corner, he stuck with the play and poked the puck to Dvorak behind the net, who found Heineman all alone at the front of the net.

While it isn't the most flashy goal ever scored, it shows Heineman's hockey sense and willing to get to the high danger areas on the ice. If he keeps up this play, he should be able to score a good number more this season, and carve out a full time spot on the Canadiens roster.