F - Lars Steiner - Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (QMJHL) - 2026 Draft

[Hockeyville USA]

Never heard of him till now and he's killing it in the Q. It's the Q, but still, very impressive

 

[Hinterland]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1847768560049016936

Played such an impressive game that he was chosen as 1st star by Shawinigan media despite "only" scoring one assist in an away game.
Now has 15 points after 10 games.

 

[SergeConstantin74]

Never heard of him till now and he's killing it in the Q. It's the Q, but still, very impressive

People thought Gridin would be destroying the Q after his 83 points in the USHL but so far he isn’t. (6 points in 8 games)

It shows I think that Steiner’s point totals look impressive without the need to include "it’s the Q".

 

[Speyer]

People thought Gridin would be destroying the Q after his 83 points in the USHL but so far he isn’t. (6 points in 8 games)

It shows I think that Steiner’s point totals look impressive without the need to include "it’s the Q".

The Q might not be the strongest of the Canadian junior league but I never understood the idea that it is supposedly a significantly worse league than the other two and even behind the USHL. Teams out of the Q even won four Memorial Cups in the last five years the tournament was held. Maybe the fact that some of the more notable prospects developed there have struggled to make the jump to the NHL has contributed to the bad image the league has. But there are also a bunch of counter examples to that claim such as Crosby, MacKinnon, Kucherov, Ehlers, Marchand, Hischier etc. Even the supposed bust Lafreniere has been trending really well lately.

As far as Steiner is concerned, he has been coming down to earth lately but that was expected. He still continues to contribute offensively however and seems to be playing well. Even if he should fall below ppg at the end of the season his first year in Canada should be considered a great success. I dont think really anybody had him on his radar as a legit NHL prospect in the first place coming into the season. And he still has another year to develop before he is draft eligible.

 

[BKarchitect]

The Q is now the lowest scoring CHL league, I believe anyways IIRC (feel free to fact check). I don’t think many casual prospect followers realize this. Now you can construct all sorts of arguments about it being the talent level and all that but gone are the days when you do a CHL cross-league comp and say “well of course he’s got a ton of points, it’s the Q”.

Interesting to see Steiner take off and Schenk struggle so much statistically making the same leap. I assume Schenk is starting with a much less important role compared to Steiner?

 

[Andre Palot]

Holla if you hear him.

 

[Tube Skates]

The Q might not be the strongest of the Canadian junior league but I never understood the idea that it is supposedly a significantly worse league than the other two and even behind the USHL. Teams out of the Q even won four Memorial Cups in the last five years the tournament was held. Maybe the fact that some of the more notable prospects developed there have struggled to make the jump to the NHL has contributed to the bad image the league has. But there are also a bunch of counter examples to that claim such as Crosby, MacKinnon, Kucherov, Ehlers, Marchand, Hischier etc. Even the supposed bust Lafreniere has been trending really well lately.

As far as Steiner is concerned, he has been coming down to earth lately but that was expected. He still continues to contribute offensively however and seems to be playing well. Even if he should fall below ppg at the end of the season his first year in Canada should be considered a great success. I dont think really anybody had him on his radar as a legit NHL prospect in the first place coming into the season. And he still has another year to develop before he is draft eligible.

The parity of the Q teams is closer than people think. The best players are generally small and quick and have a harder time graduating to higher levels. The coaching is a cut above other leagues which helps lead to the Memorial Cup victories

 

[SergeConstantin74]

The Q is now the lowest scoring CHL league, I believe anyways IIRC (feel free to fact check). I don’t think many casual prospect followers realize this. Now you can construct all sorts of arguments about it being the talent level and all that but gone are the days when you do a CHL cross-league comp and say “well of course he’s got a ton of points, it’s the Q”.

Interesting to see Steiner take off and Schenk struggle so much statistically making the same leap. I assume Schenk is starting with a much less important role compared to Steiner?

Schenk started on the 1st line and he has fallen down to 4th line in Saint John.

 

[Hinterland]

The Q is now the lowest scoring CHL league, I believe anyways IIRC (feel free to fact check). I don’t think many casual prospect followers realize this. Now you can construct all sorts of arguments about it being the talent level and all that but gone are the days when you do a CHL cross-league comp and say “well of course he’s got a ton of points, it’s the Q”.

Interesting to see Steiner take off and Schenk struggle so much statistically making the same leap. I assume Schenk is starting with a much less important role compared to Steiner?

Schenk started as 1C but kept getting demoted over time. I thought he played well. Had an impact physically and was solid against the puck. Unfortunately he wasn't really able to provide offense on a consistent basis. He has elite vision and passing but probably just wasn't dynamic enough to really put that on display. Maybe he needed more time to adjust to smaller ice, new league, new coaches, new teammates, new culture etc. Then some vets returned from NHL camps and coaches maybe lost patience as well. Once you're in a smaller role it's kinda tough to impress in CHL leagues. Unfortunately for Schenk this is his draft season while Steiner still has time. He's probably gonna get more chances though. It's rare for imports to have a Steiner like impact right away, especially if they're this young.

Steiner, right now, is a much more polished player than Schenk though. There's no doubt about that. He caught Schenk over the course of last season and just has a better learning curve right now.

Having said that, Schenk is much bigger and a Center while Steiner is smaller and right now playing wing only. So even though he's a few months older it's probably normal that Schenk's development is a little bit slower.

 

[Hinterland]

Also kinda interesting how, with the exception of Pedrotti (who I'm not sure if he's actually a legit prospect anyway), all Swiss prospects drafted into the Q this year landed with really good teams. Voltigeurs, Océanic, Sea Dogs and Huskies are 2nd, 4th, 5th and 8th in standings of a league of 18 teams by point percentage. That clearly helps if you can secure a bigger role early like Bosson, Sansonnens (though he's currently injured) and Steiner did but it's not really helpful if you're between 4C and healthy scratch like Schenk. I hope he'll get more chances or a trade down the road. Otherwise it will be difficult for him to get drafted into the NHL...at least in 2025.

 

[Hinterland]

Got 5 assists in a 6-2 Huskies win over the Memorial Cup hosts of Rimouski. Steiner now sitting 4th in QMJHL scoring with 20 points on the season. His line with Verreault (23 points) and Zonnon (18 points) scored all six goals last night and has been a cheat code so far this season. Slightly overpowered.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I find it very hard to believe he won’t be a first round pick.

 

[LeProspector]

Where did this production come from? I’ve never seen such middling stats in a lesser league to this before. It’s actually crazy, no one could have predicted this.

 

[Hinterland]

I find it very hard to believe he won’t be a first round pick.

It does look good but it's too early to tell. Steiner is small and NHL teams don't like small wingers very much. Also, as I wrote in the Zonnon thread already, both kids are clearly helped a lot by Antonin Verreault. Verreault does drive up value and stats of Zonnon and Steiner quite a bit.

But yeah. So far he's fun to watch. I knew he was a good sniper but his shot seems to have improved a lot lately. While I wanted to see him at Center I'm still impressed with how creative he is. Sometimes he does give away pucks, sometimes even his linemates are surprised by his ideas but he's proven to be way more than just a sniper. He's also been smart enough to just focus on getting pucks to the net and shoot for rebounds now that he's kinda snakebitten himself. He's finding plenty of other ways to contribute while pucks aren't going in for him the way they did earlier this season.

He's always heavily engaged against the puck as well, be it on the fore-, backcheck or along the boards. As I wrote earlier in this thread he has to get bigger and stronger though. I think that's gonna be key if he wants to go in the 1st round. Otherwise, NHL franchises are gonna doubt his ability to keep it up playing vs men.

 

[Hinterland]

Where did this production come from? I’ve never seen such middling stats in a lesser league to this before. It’s actually crazy, no one could have predicted this.

I don't think anybody could have predicted it, especially since the younger European kids tend to need time to adjust and therefore get eased in by their CHL teams.

Having said it's not completely crazy either. Steiner made big steps last season already. In the U20 elite league he scored 22 in 33 during the regular season and 5 in 7 during playoffs. He was 15 yo going into last season and played against players up to almost six years older than him. He's a mid November 07 birthday who played in a league with 02 born overagers. He also scored almost 2 PPG in the U17 elites.

So if you compare his 22/23 with his 23/24 stats you'll see that he's actually trending nicely for quite a while now. I belive he was injured for most of 22/23 and only played some games late in that season. His learning curve since then is very good though so perhaps we shouldn't be all that surprised to see him improve again over the summer.

 

[Speyer]

Where did this production come from? I’ve never seen such middling stats in a lesser league to this before. It’s actually crazy, no one could have predicted this.

Like Hinterland, I also beleive that he is overachieving a bit and just landed in the perfect spot with the Huskies on a very good line.

But on the other hand he had a crazy developmental spike in the last one and a half years. Went from being a average forward in a below average swiss age group to clearly the best player in that class in a year. And his start in the CHL has even been crazier than that. The development of prospects is never linear and you always have late bloomers who exceed expectations, like Timo Meier in his draft year for example. But Steiner is certianly the craziest case I have seen so far. At least he will be if he can sustain his trajectory and convert it into draft success.

 

[Hinterland]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1849812644531671185

On Friday, Steiner became the first rookie in Huskies history to score 5 assists in one game.


In today's 2-1 win vs Val d'Or, Steiner scored the game winner and got an assist on the other goal by Carr. He also almost scored a Michigan. It was a close call. Has 22 points on the season, still sitting 4th in QMJHL scoring.


It's from an older game in September but I found this shift by shift video on youtube. Might be interesting for those less familiar with his game:

 

[pgfan66]

The point totals look great and he looks decent outside of that too, but if you just watch the points he's scored so far, a ton of them were extremely lucky. Just shots from bad angles and his teammates buried the rebound, passes that didn't directly create the scoring chance etc. Lots of PP points too.

Not saying he's a bad player or not a draft prospect. But, as has been mentioned before, his point totals are highly misleading and we have every reason to believe they'll come down to a more reasonable level sooner than later.

 

[Hinterland]

The point totals look great and he looks decent outside of that too, but if you just watch the points he's scored so far, a ton of them were extremely lucky. Just shots from bad angles and his teammates buried the rebound, passes that didn't directly create the scoring chance etc. Lots of PP points too.

Not saying he's a bad player or not a draft prospect. But, as has been mentioned before, his point totals are highly misleading and we have every reason to believe they'll come down to a more reasonable level sooner than later.

I disagree that it's luck. It's not luck at all. It's just Verreault (and Higgins on the back end) being this good. Playing with them does help Steiner's and Zonnon's stats quite a bit. Doesn't mean they aren't good players in their own rights or that they're scoring lucky points. That line (and that PP unit including Higgins and Verdon) is legit. I don't think you'll find something better in the Q.

As I said already it will be interesting to watch them once Verreault and Higgins are gone. The Huskies might have the best overager trio of the entire CHL. Those guys (Verreault, Higgins, Carr) are completely insane and will be tough to replace.

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

Holla if you hear him.

Big poppa pump in da house !!

 

[pgfan66]

I disagree that it's luck. It's not luck at all. It's just Verreault (and Higgins on the back end) being this good. Playing with them does help Steiner's and Zonnon's stats quite a bit. Doesn't mean they aren't good players in their own rights or that they're scoring lucky points. That line (and that PP unit including Higgins and Verdon) is legit. I don't think you'll find something better in the Q.

As I said already it will be interesting to watch them once Verreault and Higgins are gone. The Huskies might have the best overager trio of the entire CHL. Those guys (Verreault, Higgins, Carr) are completely insane and will be tough to replace.

You haven’t seen all his points, have you?

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

You haven’t seen all his points, have you?

Points ? He’s about peaks and freaks

 

[Hinterland]

You haven’t seen all his points, have you?

I have.

 

[Hinterland]

Verreault and Steiner with yet another pair of points each tonight. Against one of the best if not the best goalie of the Q, Jakub Milota.
Verreault now (shared with Cataford) topscorer of the Q with 25 points, Steiner right behind those two the only player with 24 points.

I don't see them slow down by much unless they're split up or something happens to Verreault. Antonin Verreault already has a Jean Beliveau trophy for being Q topscorer. He scored 107 points last season already and is on pace for 113 this season. Almost nothing that guy does in the Q is luck. Also, Steiner hit the post right before scoring his goal tonight. That was also the Huskies first goal of the game on their 20th (!) shot. I don't think you can say they were lucky tonight.

Probably Steiner's worst game of the season and he still scored two points. The Eagles OT winner was at least partly his fault. First he tried to walk two Eagles at once at Center ice and lost the puck. Then he was a part of a misunderstanding with Brunelle in the offensive zone when he probably should have went for a change already. As a result he didn't get back in time to help stop the Eagles breakaway.

The game shouldn't have went to OT though. The Huskies took 5 penalties within just 5mins allowing the Eagles to score three unanswered in the 3rd. I'm also not sure why they thought it was a good idea to start Hagen. With Meloche they would have easily won this game.

 

[Hinterland]

After a rough one vs Cape Breton, Steiner bounced back playing a very sharp game in Halifax today. Bill Zonnon deflected a Steiner shot for the Huskies lone goal of the game and Antonin Verreault didn't get a point on that play. Therefore, Steiner is currently (tied with Verreault and Mathieu Cataford) the QMJHL's leading scorer.