Prospect Info: 2024 Montreal Canadiens Development Camp

[The Great Weal]

Good lord Beck's an absolute unit. Even though I wouldn't put it past him to make the team right away, I'd rather have him in Laval for a bit to get more offensive opportunities. He'll definitely get a shot with injuries or Dvorak getting traded at the deadline.

 

[red devil]

Good lord Beck's an absolute unit. Even though I wouldn't put it past him to make the team right away, I'd rather have him in Laval for a bit to get more offensive opportunities. He'll definitely get a shot with injuries or Dvorak getting traded at the deadline.

He's definitely built and he weighed in only 2 pounds less than Xhekaj 194 compared to 196.

 

[BaseballCoach]

Who was the biggest bright spot of the Dev camp?

Hage was the best player, Beck still looks like a 3rd liner but Florian Xhekaj was the revelation.

Little Xhekaj skates well, carries the puck with his head up and can pass, shoot and hit.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Hage was the best player, Beck still looks like a 3rd liner but Florian Xhekaj was the revelation.

Little Xhekaj skates well, carries the puck with his head up and can pass, shoot and hit.

Yeah I like Beck a lot but I really don't see any of the puck skills that would project him as more than a bottom 6 C

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

Kudos to you for being able to recognize and admit to making a mistake; many can’t. I have no horses in this race. I’m here to read and track what’s happening with my favorite team. The information you and others provide here on this board is truly unique.

I recently also started watching Canadiens-related podcasts, including Arpon and Godin and Grant’s Recruits. As far as Grant is concerned, I find his information and insight on the NHL draft to be second to none. For example, he had Sennecke going top 5 and Yacemchuk at 7 to Ottawa, at least a week before anyone else did. As other posters have mentioned, this is probably due to his many connections. Often, who you know counts as much or even more than what you know.

Although I like watching the Recruits podcast, I sometimes find Grant’s conduct toward his co-host, Shayne Gaumond, disrespectful. All is well when Shayne agrees with what Grant is saying, but when he doesn’t, Grant’s behavior is rude, which I do not like.

These were just lucky darts and does not explain the mountain of terrible takes that he has had over the years.

There is no insider info to be mined on where teams are actually leaning and any baboon can be correct and nail lucky guesses especially in this draft where the top 14 where largely interchangeable after Celebrini. Grant factually is not a scout and does not go to see these players live, he absolutely is a fraud but that still does not excuse the abysmal misquote that I attributed to him.

Thank you for gracefully accepting my retraction but I still suspect that you are likely affiliated with the podcast....and I do really like Gaumond as a host but I don't respect his hockey acumen which is only slightly worse than Grant's.

Hage was the best player, Beck still looks like a 3rd liner but Florian Xhekaj was the revelation.

Little Xhekaj skates well, carries the puck with his head up and can pass, shoot and hit.

Beck was injured very early in the scrimmage so I don't know how there should be any opinion at all on him. These scrimmages are silly spectacles that should not change anyone's opinion on any player.

 

[Whitesnake]

Reminder that in the ancient times....if anybody remember my reports...Juraj Mikus looked like a future Nikta Kucherov. Ryan White had trouble not falling. The latter played in the NHL. Kucherov light couldn't be an average player in the KHL....

I also remember Oskari Korpikari and Niklas Torp looking just as good if not better than Yanick Weber. You know the rest....

It,s great to see players do well. Always better to see them well than not. But it's never the whole story.

Bad people would say that it's me who wrote terrible reports....thank god those sorts of people don't exist here.....

 

[Tyson]

Anyone know how serious Beck was hurt in that scrimmage? Would be nice to know.

 

[salbutera]

We're good. Imagine being a Sens fan though. Your Nhl team is bad and your prospect pool is terrible

View attachment 893202

Gotta say Canes drafting since Tulsky arrived on the scene remains quite impressive

 

[Shred]

Bad people would say that it's me who wrote terrible reports....thank god those sorts of people don't exist here.....

I remember really looking forwards to your reports. They were always a great read, even if the vast majority of those prospects didn't pan out.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Reminder that in the ancient times....if anybody remember my reports...Juraj Mikus looked like a future Nikta Kucherov. Ryan White had trouble not falling. The latter played in the NHL. Kucherov light couldn't be an average player in the KHL....

I also remember Oskari Korpikari and Niklas Torp looking just as good if not better than Yanick Weber. You know the rest....

It,s great to see players do well. Always better to see them well than not. But it's never the whole story.

Bad people would say that it's me who wrote terrible reports....thank god those sorts of people don't exist here.....

Nicolas "Air" Torp

Because there was a time where Swedish dmen didn't know how to hit without jumping.

 

[Whitesnake]

I remember really looking forwards to your reports. They were always a great read, even if the vast majority of those prospects didn't pan out.

Yeah well most of my reports rarely indicated that based on those camps, they would pan out. I did say that Collberg had a NHL shot. But to a game...you need more than a shot...etc.

 

[Shred]

Yeah well most of my reports rarely indicated that based on those camps, they would pan out. I did say that Collberg had a NHL shot. But to a game...you need more than a shot...etc.

You were truly a beacon of hope during those dark years.

 

[dauv]

Bergevin had good trades and good signings, and bad trades and bad signings. What made him a really bad GM as opposed to a mediocre one was:

1. The guys he failed to re-sign for dumb (mostly egotistical) reasons, Radulov, Danault, Markov…
2. The total lack of vision leading to absolutely not attempts to add guys the team needed.
3. The really terrible signings of crappy players to long term signings. The only thing most of these players had going for them was the TSN cheering secrion.
4. The coaches he signed who limited the NHL team and destroyed lower prospects.

Bergevin's biggest problem was thinking he was the star of the team. His ego was far too big, probably the reason he banned all habs alumn's because he knew he couldn't hold a candle to them who were actual stars.

 

[Tyson]

Bergevin's biggest problem was thinking he was the star of the team. His ego was far too big, probably the reason he banned all habs alumn's because he knew he couldn't hold a candle to them who were actual stars.

A great point.

 

[dauv]

I don't see how a team like LA doesn't see it.

I am sure the reason is because he is one of the boys and funny. He probably is a riot and great to hang out with, he just doesn't have the mental capacity to formulate a plan and execute it, probably also blames everything on the players as well.

 

[Tyson]

I am sure the reason is because he is one of the boys and funny. He probably is a riot and great to hang out with, he just doesn't have the mental capacity to formulate a plan and execute it, probably also blames everything on the players as well.

How did the Habs executives (and Serge Savard) not see this back in 2012?

 

[dauv]

How did the Habs executives (and Serge Savard) not see this back in 2012?

I friend of mine who lives in Detroit and was around the entourage of the Blackhawks when Bergevin was hired by the Habs. He told me Bergevin was a really great guy, funny and incredibly friendly and had a great eye for talent. He even attended his getting hired party in Chicago before coming to Montreal.

He saw him 2 years later in the summer in Chicago and said he had became conceited and egotistical, totally changed, felt he was better than most people. Said he wasn't the only one who thought that amongst his old entourage.

 

[Tyson]

I friend of mine who lives in Detroit and was around the entourage of the Blackhawks when Bergevin was hired by the Habs. He told me Bergevin was a really great guy, funny and incredibly friendly and had a great eye for talent. He even attended his getting hired party in Chicago before coming to Montreal.

He saw him 2 years later in the summer in Chicago and said he had became conceited and egotistical, totally changed, felt he was better than most people. Said he wasn't the only one who taught that amongst his old entourage.

Thanks for the insight...makes sense from what else I have heard and read.

 

[Intangir]

Having watched the scrimmage, though there is not a lot that we can derive from this considering it's only development camp, I thought that if we forego the usual "high pick has a good dev camp" schtick, a couple guys we picked later in the draft the last 2 years showed very well.

Eriksson was definitely noticeable out there, showed his skill, forechecking ability, and smarts with the puck while also being a little faster than I expected considering what little I saw of him last year.

Tyler Thorpe definitely came as advertised, with flaws to his skating mechanics and a need to massively refine his all-around game if he wants to progress to the pro level. But he has size for days, more smarts than I gave him credit for, and some nifty hands for his size. The one thing he most surprised me with however is the quality of his shot; I did not expect it to be as good as it seemed to be. And Thorpe's release similarly looked faster than I ever remembered it being. We're still in the very early days of Thorpe's development, but I like what he's shown so far.

Aside from those two, Protz showed a lot more poise and confidence with the puck than I expected to see.

And as many other people have said, Xhekaj looked fast and strong on his skates with understated skill. I quite like his odds of being a bottom-of-the-lineup type of player.

So yeah, I am cautiously optimistic about our future considering what I've just seen the last couple days and the myriad other prospects we have at different stages of their development.

I think this is the deepest our prospect pool has been ever since I've started paying great attention to our prospects, about 15 or so years ago. We still need more high-end talent, but our prospect pool is really coming along nicely.

 

[1909]

Savard’s number should be unretired for this reason.

Savard was a great player, but he was overated as GM. Besides a couple of good draft years at the beginning, he was totally awful most of the time he was GM. Look at Hockey DB drafts lists. Ouch !!!!. But he made some good trades to get Bobby Smith and Kirk Muller. And some bad ones…. Chelios for Savard.

 

[Souker]

Hage was the best player, Beck still looks like a 3rd liner but Florian Xhekaj was the revelation.

Little Xhekaj skates well, carries the puck with his head up and can pass, shoot and hit.

But that’s what we need from Beck. We don’t need/want him to be an average 2C. We have prospects in the pipeline for the top 6.
What we need/want him to be is an elite 3C that can play great defensively first, win FO, shutdown opposing top line and be on PK1.
That sort of 3C often times hold so much more value and bring so much more to the table than just an average 2C with a little more offence.

 

[junyab]

How did the Habs executives (and Serge Savard) not see this back in 2012?

Because the Molson's know squat about hockey. Seeing Geoff's hungry eyes at MB still haunts me.