Prospect Info: My Top 20 Hab Prospects List (Updated #538)

SannywithoutCompy

Registered User
Dec 22, 2020
2,517
4,679
1. Hutson
2. Reinbacher
3. Mailloux
4. Fowler
5. Beck
6. Volokhin
7. Engstrom
8. Kapanen
9. Konyushkov
10. Dobeš
11. Xhekaj
12. Eriksson
13. Tuch
14. Mesar
15. Davidson

Beyond that it's pretty much longshots to project NHL potential. Kidney and Farrell need to take big jumps to prove they aren't just AHL/Euro level, and nothing else in the pipeline is particularly intriguing.
 

26Mats

Registered User
Jun 23, 2018
33,348
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1. Hutson
2. Reinbacher
3. Mailloux
4. Fowler
5. Beck
6. Volokhin
7. Engstrom
8. Kapanen
9. Konyushkov
10. Dobeš
11. Xhekaj
12. Eriksson
13. Tuch
14. Mesar
15. Davidson

Beyond that it's pretty much longshots to project NHL potential. Kidney and Farrell need to take big jumps to prove they aren't just AHL/Euro level, and nothing else in the pipeline is particularly intriguing.

Davidson, Tuch, and Mesar ahead of Heineman?
 
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SannywithoutCompy

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Dec 22, 2020
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Davidson, Tuch, and Mesar ahead of Heineman?
I didn't come away impressed by Heineman in any of the Laval games I watched this year, but maybe I just chose the wrong ones to watch. I just didn't see much progression from last year or since the start of the year.

I hope I'm wrong, he'd fit the profile of a bottom sixer that we'd need but I just haven't seen the development I'd hoped for yet.
 

zzoo

Registered User
Mar 9, 2004
3,200
235
1. Hutson
2. Reinbacher
3. Mailloux
4. Fowler
5. Beck
6. Volokhin
7. Engstrom
8. Kapanen
9. Konyushkov
10. Dobeš
11. Xhekaj
12. Eriksson
13. Tuch
14. Mesar
15. Davidson

Beyond that it's pretty much longshots to project NHL potential. Kidney and Farrell need to take big jumps to prove they aren't just AHL/Euro level, and nothing else in the pipeline is particularly intriguing.
Good list !
I'm sad to see that the highest-ranked F is at #5, and there's only 1 F in top 7, and only 2 F in top 10. The balance between F and D is so screwed.
 

Treb

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May 31, 2011
29,692
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Montreal
Good list !
I'm sad to see that the highest-ranked F is at #5, and there's only 1 F in top 7, and only 2 F in top 10. The balance between F and D is so screwed.

Both Slaf and Roy being considered graduated in that list skew the balance.

I'm also expecting both 1st 2024 rounder to make the list.
 

JT3

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May 27, 2013
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By the looks of it people are going to be quite pleasantly surprised whenever Rohrer comes over to NA. He just won a championship in a good men's league playing 3rd line as a 19 year old. He doesn't even turn 20 until September. Could be a Lekhonen type impact (early Habs Lekh, not the current one obviously).
 

26Mats

Registered User
Jun 23, 2018
33,348
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Good list !
I'm sad to see that the highest-ranked F is at #5, and there's only 1 F in top 7, and only 2 F in top 10. The balance between F and D is so screwed.
And I have Engstrom ahead of Beck. So for me our first forward is 6th right now...

But we have 6 good top 9 forwards in Montreal right now: Slaf, Suzuki, Caufield, Dach, Roy, Newhook. So we only have 3 top 9 spots to fill.
 

Habs Halifax

Loyal Habs Fan
Jul 11, 2016
70,792
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I didn't come away impressed by Heineman in any of the Laval games I watched this year, but maybe I just chose the wrong ones to watch. I just didn't see much progression from last year or since the start of the year.

I hope I'm wrong, he'd fit the profile of a bottom sixer that we'd need but I just haven't seen the development I'd hoped for yet.

I tend to agree. Heineman has not really improved from where he was when we drafted him. Did the injuries set him back or is he who he is at this point.

Still some potential but it's fading away quickly. He does have the skating/size/NHL shot but might be yet another type that has a short prime from age 25-30.

Age 22 and 4 NHL games. It's too early to know one way or another.

Good list !
I'm sad to see that the highest-ranked F is at #5, and there's only 1 F in top 7, and only 2 F in top 10. The balance between F and D is so screwed.

Yet we have Suzuki, Caufield, Dach, Slaf in the NHL vs Guhle.

Prospect list are interesting and fun to evaluate. However, the Suzuki and under core is more of a valued conversation. And yes, I agree we need to bring in more top 6 talent but lets face it, Our D is not proven aside from Guhle.

Youth forward group in the NHL is stronger than the youth defenseman group.
vs
Forward pool being weaker than the defenseman pool
 

montreal

Go Habs Go
Mar 21, 2002
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No wonder we were mediocre for so long.

My take has always been that many at HF under estimate how important proper development and coaching are to help players progress. When you see a lack of progress you blame the coach first, just as you would if it were a teacher and the student failed. Of course this goes down a path of many variables, some kids just don't want to be taught etc.. or some people that need extra tutoring but don't always end up getting it and it hurts their career.

So when I railed for years that Lefebvre was the worst HC for development i've seen from our AHL team, that MB was the worst GM at development, utterly clueless it appears imo but at the time I kept saying don't rush KK to the NHL and don't get caught up on his 1st seasons success as we saw with Galchenyuk that things can still go very far south despite putting up 30 goals.

I think we are seeing the impacts now of proper development, having a head coach that doesn't want to make you a better person by putting you in the press box because you made 1 mistake and we lost 2-1 because of it. We saw how Caufield was developing under Dom vs how it's going now. We see the big leap Slaf has had after a brutal start. Does anyone honestly believe that MT, Julien, Dom would have gotten the results Slaf, Caufield and Suzuki have shown under MSL?

That said, Timmins made too many mistakes and he shares a ton of the blame as well as MB and Molson, the staffs and of course the prospects as I hate to see the word ruin about any prospect that busts because of coaching, it's just a tool to help you get better that you have to put the work into in order to get something out of it but a good coach will be able to get it out of you and I think it's clear for years we didn't have good coaches.

This is fun, I'll just go top 10 in my eyes:

Reinbacher
Hutson
Beck
Mailloux
Volokhin
Farrell
Mesar
Engstrom
Heineman
Fowler

I think Reinbacher and/or Mailloux make the team out of camp and hutson starts the year in the ahl.

Guhle Mallioux
Matheson Reinbacher
Hutson/Xhekaj Barron/Savard


We have too many guys here. We need to make some room in the back end for forward depth. I would rather sink with these young guys and see how the cards fall.

They have too many but Hughes is also in a good spot that he doesn't need to do anything yet and can take his time if he doesn't get the right offers.

I think Davidson will play more NHL games than Farrell in his career, I really don't see NHL potential in Farrell at all

I would take that bet, as Farrell easily was much better then Davidson was this year. He just needs to add a good amount of speed, he's too slow for that size but Davidson isn't any quicker.

Hoping Vinzenz Rohrer & Riley Kidney can make a strong push at training camp to crack your top 15

They would need to show a ton more, so small need to get a lot stronger, add mass. Didn't get to see too much of Rohrer but Kidney is just way too easy to push off pucks, he'll need a huge off-season.

I have a hard time seeing Beck at 7, I think it's clear that he'll have quite a good career altering between 3C to 2C and be a shutdown/potentially pest type

I'm sold on the player and have him penciled in that 3C slot for a while unless we f*** up and trade him

Knock on wood tho

We might actually finally have a solid prospect list

The rankings mean nothing, it's all about how much each prospect progresses year to year or not. That's why I think so many posters just talk out their ass (not directed at anyone) but when posters say a 17, 18, 19, 20 year old is going to be this or that in 5 years, I know that there are so many variables and factors involved that there is no way in the world they could know that other then guessing likely outcomes.

To me I just watch them year to year and try and see where they show improvement and by how much vs any struggles. Beck has a great release on his shot so he will score some goals but I think he needs a good bit of work on it still to be more accurate and hopefully more of a sniper since I am not a big fan of his playmaking. But if he works on his shot, with his speed and skating maybe he could be a top 6, it's hard to say as again it's all about how much can he continue to progress or not.

I didn't come away impressed by Heineman in any of the Laval games I watched this year, but maybe I just chose the wrong ones to watch. I just didn't see much progression from last year or since the start of the year.

I hope I'm wrong, he'd fit the profile of a bottom sixer that we'd need but I just haven't seen the development I'd hoped for yet.

He certainly struggled with consistency at times but he does look like he will get more looks in the NHL as I like the physical game, skating, speed, effort and a decent shot. I would put him in Laval and try to work on the offense more.

Roy has already graduated?

I figured he won't be back down unless of injury plus I can't use any NHL games in my vids. I'm hoping from a big year from him next season.

By the looks of it people are going to be quite pleasantly surprised whenever Rohrer comes over to NA. He just won a championship in a good men's league playing 3rd line as a 19 year old. He doesn't even turn 20 until September. Could be a Lekhonen type impact (early Habs Lekh, not the current one obviously).

He'll need to work on getting bigger, stronger, as the NL is a far cry from the NHL.
 

dcyhabs

Registered User
May 30, 2008
4,456
2,678
Montreal
My take has always been that many at HF under estimate how important proper development and coaching are to help players progress. When you see a lack of progress you blame the coach first, just as you would if it were a teacher and the student failed. Of course this goes down a path of many variables, some kids just don't want to be taught etc.. or some people that need extra tutoring but don't always end up getting it and it hurts their career.

So when I railed for years that Lefebvre was the worst HC for development i've seen from our AHL team, that MB was the worst GM at development, utterly clueless it appears imo but at the time I kept saying don't rush KK to the NHL and don't get caught up on his 1st seasons success as we saw with Galchenyuk that things can still go very far south despite putting up 30 goals.

I think we are seeing the impacts now of proper development, having a head coach that doesn't want to make you a better person by putting you in the press box because you made 1 mistake and we lost 2-1 because of it. We saw how Caufield was developing under Dom vs how it's going now. We see the big leap Slaf has had after a brutal start. Does anyone honestly believe that MT, Julien, Dom would have gotten the results Slaf, Caufield and Suzuki have shown under MSL?

That said, Timmins made too many mistakes and he shares a ton of the blame as well as MB and Molson, the staffs and of course the prospects as I hate to see the word ruin about any prospect that busts because of coaching, it's just a tool to help you get better that you have to put the work into in order to get something out of it but a good coach will be able to get it out of you and I think it's clear for years we didn't have good coaches.



They have too many but Hughes is also in a good spot that he doesn't need to do anything yet and can take his time if he doesn't get the right offers.



I would take that bet, as Farrell easily was much better then Davidson was this year. He just needs to add a good amount of speed, he's too slow for that size but Davidson isn't any quicker.



They would need to show a ton more, so small need to get a lot stronger, add mass. Didn't get to see too much of Rohrer but Kidney is just way too easy to push off pucks, he'll need a huge off-season.



The rankings mean nothing, it's all about how much each prospect progresses year to year or not. That's why I think so many posters just talk out their ass (not directed at anyone) but when posters say a 17, 18, 19, 20 year old is going to be this or that in 5 years, I know that there are so many variables and factors involved that there is no way in the world they could know that other then guessing likely outcomes.

To me I just watch them year to year and try and see where they show improvement and by how much vs any struggles. Beck has a great release on his shot so he will score some goals but I think he needs a good bit of work on it still to be more accurate and hopefully more of a sniper since I am not a big fan of his playmaking. But if he works on his shot, with his speed and skating maybe he could be a top 6, it's hard to say as again it's all about how much can he continue to progress or not.



He certainly struggled with consistency at times but he does look like he will get more looks in the NHL as I like the physical game, skating, speed, effort and a decent shot. I would put him in Laval and try to work on the offense more.



I figured he won't be back down unless of injury plus I can't use any NHL games in my vids. I'm hoping from a big year from him next season.



He'll need to work on getting bigger, stronger, as the NL is a far cry from the NHL.
Not just a teacher, but a teacher of the most gifted students. It’s not like coaches are failing because the young guys are bad, they have been selected over and over for skill.
 

GrandBison

Registered User
Jul 1, 2019
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By the looks of it people are going to be quite pleasantly surprised whenever Rohrer comes over to NA. He just won a championship in a good men's league playing 3rd line as a 19 year old. He doesn't even turn 20 until September. Could be a Lekhonen type impact (early Habs Lekh, not the current one obviously).
You mean that he's good at shooting over the crossbar?
 

JC Superstar

Registered User
Aug 7, 2013
472
547
I was used to see a list with prospects 2 or 3 years away. Hutson Reinbacher and Mailloux, the top 3 on most lists, are about to make the team and are displaying their true value iinstead of some uncertain hope. What a change.

Unfortunately, it means that our prospect pool is about to loose those top players but fortunately, we've got the picks to build the next generation, maybe forward heavy.
 
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Tanknation

Registered User
Feb 24, 2012
3,256
3,749
Demidov
Reinbacher
Hutson
Cole Eiserman
Fowler
Beck
Mailloux
Volokhin
Farrell
Mesar
Engstrom
Heineman
 

montreal

Go Habs Go
Mar 21, 2002
58,856
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I was used to see a list with prospects 2 or 3 years away. Hutson Reinbacher and Mailloux, the top 3 on most lists, are about to make the team and are displaying their true value iinstead of some uncertain hope. What a change.

Unfortunately, it means that our prospect pool is about to loose those top players but fortunately, we've got the picks to build the next generation, maybe forward heavy.

This should be one of the more exciting training camps as it's going to be a blast seeing how Hutson, Mailloux, Reinbacher, Engstrom do. To me this is the make or break for the Habs, if they want to be contenders I think they will need this group to hit it out of the park either in production or trade return.
 
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HuGort

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Jun 15, 2012
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This should be one of the more exciting training camps as it's going to be a blast seeing how Hutson, Mailloux, Reinbacher, Engstrom do. To me this is the make or break for the Habs, if they want to be contenders I think they will need this group to hit it out of the park either in production or trade return.
Engstrom be next Forsling. He was 5th round pick of Canucks. Took him under 27 to be good defenseman
 

ChesterNimitz

governed by the principle of calculated risk
Jul 4, 2002
5,822
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This should be one of the more exciting training camps as it's going to be a blast seeing how Hutson, Mailloux, Reinbacher, Engstrom do. To me this is the make or break for the Habs, if they want to be contenders I think they will need this group to hit it out of the park either in production or trade return.
It ‘s time that the promise of tomorrow becomes the reality of today.
 
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McGees

Registered User
Jun 15, 2016
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Top 25

1. Nikita Scherbak
2. Mike McCarron
3. Noah Juulsen
4. Charles Hudon
5. Jacob de la Rose
6. Martin Reway
7. Artturi Lehkonen
8. Magnus Nygren
9. Sven Andrighetto
10. Brett Lernout
11. Zach Fucale
12. Lukas Vejdemo
13. Jérémy Grégoire
14. Christian Thomas
15. Daniel Carr
16. Michael McNiven
17. Darren Dietz
18. Mark MacMillan
19. Tim Bozon
20. Mac Bennett
21. Morgan Ellis
22. Ryan Johnston
23. Connor Crisp
24. Matt Bradley
25. Jeremiah Addison

Damn...only Lehky turned out to be anything worth a damn o_O
hope our current pool turns out better!
 
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Estimated_Prophet

Registered User
Mar 28, 2003
11,125
12,299
Roy has already graduated?

He should absolutely not be graduated until he actually graduates. After the draft does Celebrini not count as a prospect in San Jose because he is going to be a full time NHLer next season? Prematurely removing prospects from this list based on subjective intuition is wrong and ruins the list. These lists are generally greatly flawed as they exclude great young players who quickly make the NHL team and establish themselves at the NHL level. The stupid narrative on this board that we don't have and good to high end offensive prospects despite all of Slaf, Caufield, Dach and Newhook being no older than 23 and Slaf having just turned 20. Suzuki is still 24 and just turning the corner into his prime.

Roy is younger than six players on this list and less than a year older than six others.....only Fowler, Volokhin and Reinbacher are more than a year younger than Joshua. Going out of the way to exclude players like Roy when all that really matters is how many players you have that are still developing makes these efforts seem pointless.

A guy like Farrell who is almost a year and a half older than Roy who has also just come off of his 1st pro season should be behind Joshua Roy on this list. Arbitrarily assigning subjective parameters to govern the inclusion of prospects on this list does a disservice to accurately portraying the strength of this organizations youngest and most promising assets. According to this methodology we would have a better prospect pool if we had taken Nathan Gaucher over Slaf at 1st OA lol.

This list is from a good poster who made one subjective mistake imo but the process of forming these lists has always been grossly flawed. Why don't we see more organizational under 25 lists? That would be exponentially more reflective of the relative strengths and weaknesses of NHL teams from a perspective of determining future growth and success. These prospect lists are like looking at horoscopes when there is an astrophysicist in the room. I get that they are just fun and I know that @montreal knows this and would agree with much of what I am saying. I greatly appreciate his contributions and have no issue at all with him making these lists as there clearly is a demand. I just feel that the demand is misplaced and more fans should be concentrating on under 25 lists.

And again....Roy belongs on this list. :)
 
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