Canadiens Checklist: State Of The Rebuild – Forward Prospects

Mesar’s Value

Filip Mesar’s development in the OHL has gone a little slower than expected, especially when we consider he played two seasons of professional hockey in Slovakia before heading to Kitchener.

He improved his scoring rate slightly this season, pushing it beyond one point per game (1.15 ppg), but there was still a lot left to desire when watching him ply his trade for the Rangers.

His playmaking is top-notch, and his offensive awareness is elite, but he does tend to shy away from heading to high-danger scoring areas, and he still defers to his teammates when it comes to his own shooting opportunities. His shot rate did go up in the playoffs, but unfortunately, it only led to one goal in 24 games.

On that note, he also produced 15 assists in that stretch, leading to a very encouraging playoff scoreline of one goal and 15 assists in just 10 games.

The issue for Mesar is that his skill set, which involves exploiting open ice and mistakes made by opponents, won’t necessarily translate quickly to the professional level. That’s not to say he won’t ever make his way to the NHL, but I would suggest a year or two in the AHL would be necessary to allow him to acclimatize to the speed and lack of space involved in North American professional hockey.

Best Of The Rest

There are a few other prospects who hold legitimate potential, but the list dries up rather quickly.

Florian Xhekaj has emerged as a very interesting player who has the ideal skill set to play in the bottom six. He’s perhaps even more aggressive than his brother, Arber. More importantly, he scored a bevy of different goals in the OHL this season while almost tripling his production rate, including end-to-end highlight reel plays.

We’ll keep a close eye on his development, but like Mesar, Xhekaj will need some time in the AHL to adjust.

Cedrick Guindon had another fairly solid season with Owen Sound in the OHL, earning 26 goals and 31 assists in 68 games, but we once again saw his production fade down the stretch, a recurring issue with the Franco-Ontarian.

Oliver Kapanen enjoyed a fantastic showing in the SM-liiga playoffs, scoring seven goals and seven assists in 13 games with Kalpa. It’s an encouraging sign for a prospect that has always projected as a defensive specialist, but we also have to keep in mind he’s 20 years old, an uptick in production wasn’t just to be expected, it was necessary to keep him in the top Montreal Canadiens prospects conversation.

Luke Tuch and Sean Farrell should play important roles for the Laval Rocket next season, but like most other prospects on our list, they’ll need much more experience before we can suggest they’re ready for NHL action.

Riley Kidney and Jared Davidson had relatively quiet rookie seasons in the AHL. Some of it was due to usage, but there were certainly stretches in which Kidney looked overwhelmed by the heightened level of opposition he had to face.

Montreal Canadiens Brass Tacks

Simply put, forward prospects are an organizational weakness for the Montreal Canadiens.

With that in mind, if you add Roy and Slafkovsky to the mix, you could suggest the team is in good shape, but if we’re being perfectly honest, they’ve already reached the level where we can consider them NHL talent.

That’s good news for the rebuild, but bad news for the state of the forwards in the prospect pool.

Montreal Canadiens State Of The Rebuild Grade – Forward Prospects

Beck, Mesar, and Xhekaj have a decent chance to etch out a spot on an NHL roster eventually, but for now, we must admit there’s very little high-end talent in the forward prospect pipeline.

Grade: 2/10*

Fortunately, the Montreal Canadiens will have an opportunity to address the glaring weakness this summer, as they are set to be given yet another top-10 pick.

The team has mostly focused on adding defensive talent to the mix recently, which means they are well aware they desperately need to add a game-changing forward prospect to the group.

*If the Habs can put their hands on someone like Tij Iginla or Cayden Lindstrom, the outlook for the forward prospect group would improve significantly, as they’d instantly become the best forward prospect in the organization.