With the Habs doing their usual overachiever act in the standings, I figured it would be fun to have a look at the Habs prospects and their potential draft picks.
Let me rephrase that, players that are ranked around the Habs draft pick. NONE of us have any idea who the Habs are ever going to draft as they can go off the board. See Fischer, David and McCarron, Mike as two quick examples that pop into my head.
The two positions I'm going to focus on are center and defence and why do I think they are weakest positions in the prospect pool?
Bournival is nearly "graduated" to full time player and well, Leblanc is a bust who was only picked to appease the "Restless Natives". After that, it's still too early to decide on de la Rose and Joonas Nattinen seems too soft for a 3rd line center. Though Nattinen could make himself into a 3rd-4th line defensive forward yet.
As for Defence, I am of the firm belief that you can never have too many quality D-men in the system. With Tinordi & Beaulieu nearing full-time status in the 'Show' and Pateryn bidding his time to become a 5th-7th D-man. This leaves the cupboards pretty bare as the Habs other D prospects are 3-4 years away. That, and the hockey boner many people had for Mac Bennet has straight up vanished.
So being the hockey nerd that I am, and using the mind blowing powers of "What prospects are ranked around the Habs draft pick", let's have a look at 4 potential 1st round draft picks in this average draft class.
Ryan MacInnis, C, 190cm / 6'3, 77kg / 170lbs. Do you like "hockey genes"? Do you like players who have bloodlines to former NHLers? Then why not have a look at Al MacInnis' son. What's not to like of this potential two-way center? He has size with tons of frame to fill out, and a very heavy shot.
No, not your cup of tea? How about a player that everyone will be afraid to draft just because he's Russian.
Vladislav Kamenev, C, 188cm / 6'2, 92kg / 203lbs. The former #3 over all in the KHL draft, the Vladislav has been documented as a strong defensive center , but put up the 3rd most points at the recent 2013 World Junior A Challenge. (7pts in 5 games)
A few D-men to have a peek at who's last names don't end in Ekblad are:
Brycen Martin, D, 190cm / 6'3, 81kg / 179lbs. Martin is on a very strong Swift Current team this year, and like the other two I've listed above has room to fill out his fair size frame. Most importantly, scouts have noted his first pass. The first pass is the most important for D-men. A trait he shares with our next prospect.
Jack Glover, D, 191cm / 6'3, 78kg / 172lbs. Yes, Glover has a lot of his frame to fill out, and yes he is more of a 2nd round pick, but I'm giving him notice as he is from the draft machine that is the USNT. Being a teammate of Mike McCarron will give the Habs lots of time to look at the kid.
Note for all of you hardcore Canadian fanatics, the US is going to start pumping out more and more high end prospects. Get used to it.
As I said, these are only players that ranked around the Habs draft pick. There's no saying who they'll pick.
Cheers
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