Prospect Info: William Trudeau, LHD, Charlottetown Islanders (QMJHL) - 4th round 113th pick overall

[jfm133]

Watched Trudeau again yesterday. He is an exciting prospect, he made elite plays again, but was caught a few time off position and scrambled like crazy to recuperate. Played a two on one perfectly. There is still too much swing in his play from great to bad. He still needs to find that balance in risk taking. He reminds me a bit of Kris Letang. Still early to say if he can be half of Letang, but depending on how he can settle his game, we could have a special player. Trudeau is aiming to play a complete game, to be an offensive D that can defend well, this is hard to put together. Skating, mobility is already there, offensive IQ too, again, he just need to manage risk taking and to become more stable defensively. He is just 21. Ceiling is high and most underrated prospect by medias right now. In a year or so they will wake up like they did with Struble and call him a surprise.

 

[LesCanadiens]

Watched Trudeau again yesterday. He is an exciting prospect, he made elite plays again, but was caught a few time off position and scrambled like crazy to recuperate. Played a two on one perfectly. There is still too much swing in his play from great to bad. He still needs to find that balance in risk taking. He reminds me a bit of Kris Letang. Still early to say if he can be half of Letang, but depending on how he can settle his game, we could have a special player. Trudeau is aiming to play a complete game, to be an offensive D that can defend well, this is hard to put together. Skating, mobility is already there, offensive IQ too, again, he just need to manage risk taking and to become more stable defensively. He is just 21. Ceiling is high and most underrated prospect by medias right now. In a year or so they will wake up like they did with Struble and call him a surprise.

Nice report. Thanks. Looked so good at camp and preseason last year. Then stumbled badly defensively all of a sudden. So IMO, the framework is there as he's shown he can play defense in bunches of games. As with all young, offensive-minded D prospects (see Barron), we need to be patient and try not to overreact so much. It's very normal for defensemen to take far longer to adapt to the big jump in speed, size and physical play in the NHL.

 

[Harry Kakalovich]

I thought he quietly had a good camp and I continue to be pleasantly surprised by this prospect. He is rightfully overlooked in the Habs prospect pool, because of the glut of young defensemen, but I see potential for this player to play in the NHL someday (whether in Montreal or elsewhere).

 

[Bobby Holik agent]

He scored more than his fair share in camp.

 

[yianik]

I thought he quietly had a good camp and I continue to be pleasantly surprised by this prospect. He is rightfully overlooked in the Habs prospect pool, because of the glut of young defensemen, but I see potential for this player to play in the NHL someday (whether in Montreal or elsewhere).

Agreed. And likely with someone else on the bottom pairing.

 

[Habs13]

If Montreal wasn't so deep on defense, I think Trudeau would have had a crack at making the team - the fact that he was cut is more testimony to how deep we are at that position, I think. My biggest knock on him is his name - I hate his name! (Because of that other clown with the same last name)

 

[Anardil]

It's sad to say that Trudeau outplayed every highly touted dmen prospect the team has. Exhibit A for all the fans that were losing their minds about Mailloux, Engstrom et al, before camp started. I would even go as far as to say that Trudeau had a better camp than Hutson.

We can't count the chickens before they hatch. All these guys are still mere prospects. I am disappointed that no one, including the forward prospects showed much to prove their pro potential this camp. (apart from Kapanen obviously. Although we can't expect something much better than a future Evans/Dvorak replacement IMO.)

Here's hoping that they show more now that the real games are starting.

 

[Trabdy2]

It's sad to say that Trudeau outplayed every highly touted dmen prospect the team has. Exhibit A for all the fans that were losing their minds about Mailloux, Engstrom et al, before camp started. I would even go as far as to say that Trudeau had a better camp than Hutson.

We can't count the chickens before they hatch. All these guys are still mere prospects. I am disappointed that no one, including the forward prospects showed much to prove their pro potential this camp. (apart from Kapanen obviously. Although we can't expect something much better than a future Evans/Dvorak replacement IMO.)

Here's hoping that they show more now that the real games are starting.

I disagree that Trudeau outplayed most of our hopeful D prospects. Hutson was one of our best offence creators throughout preseason, and I think Engstrom showed a lot of good things and improved substantially through the short camp. Mailloux needs more time, but there is still a lot of potential. Struble also showed some aggressiveness and physicality that is sorely needed in this lineup.

Also, from the 2022 NHL draft (from which Hutson and Engstrom were selected), only four defencemen have played a meaningful number of NHL games so far and they were all taken top 10. We will start seeing more defencemen from the 2022 draft class start taking NHL roles over the next 3 years or so. I believe that Hutson and Engstrom will both be among them, and sooner than later in that window.