The Montreal Canadiens Are Holding Open Tryouts, and All Are Welcome
The Montreal Canadiens Are Holding Open Tryouts, and All Are Welcome
A unique series of events has created the perfect storm for players on the fringes of the Montreal Canadiens organization looking to earn their ticket to the NHL. A plethora of injuries and players in COVID-19 protocol has left a slew of openings all over the Habs lineup, to the extent that even Cam Hillis, who’s played nearly as much in the ECHL as the AHL this season, has received NHL minutes (sorry Arsen Khisamutdinov). That, coupled with a new head of state with no preconceived biases for or against any of these players has created a mid-season tryout of sorts on a team with nothing left to lose.
The great philosopher and poet Marshall Mathers once posed the question: “if you had one shot, or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, in one moment, would you capture it, or let it slip?”
Despite sweaty palms, weak knees, and heavy arms, a handful of Habs youngsters (and not-so-youngsters) have made great impressions, while others have left a bit more to be desired.
Alex Belzile
Alex Belzile is the quintessential replacement-level player. For years, he and Xavier Ouellet have been the two low-maintenance veterans at either position the team can call up to play severely limited minutes in a pinch, otherwise serving as contributors and mentors to the younger players on the Laval Rocket - however unlike Belzile, Ouellet has yet to appear in an NHL game this season due to injury. Through eleven games this year, Belzile has failed to record a point despite seeing an amount of ice time he’s never seen before at this level, with his only two career points coming last season and in the bubble during the 2019-20 playoffs.
Belzile’s TOI totals, which have reached as high as 20:04 in Carolina, are a little confusing. As a 30-year-old career AHLer with a severe lack of offensive production, it might make more sense to allocate those minutes to a younger player in a lost season like this one. That’s not to say Belzile’s play has been bad, per se, just… mediocre, and not worthy of first line minutes. His defensive metrics have been quite good, albeit in a small sample, and he rarely makes the obviously poor play (the two are likely correlated). That said, Belzile doesn’t appear to be a player who’s going to contribute in any meaningful way at any point.
Rafael Harvey-Pinard
Of all forwards listed in this article, Rafael Harvey-Pinard is one of three who still fits a reasonable ‘prospect’ definition at 23 years of age. The undersized winger has drawn comparisons to Brendan Gallagher for his work ethic and (lack of) skill-set, but of course, there’s a lot more to Brendan Gallagher than a guy who works hard. Can Harvey-Pinard, who previously recorded three seasons in the QMJHL above a point-per-game, prove he has the offensive instincts required to be an offensive contributor at the NHL?
Harvey-Pinard has found success at every level he’s played at - after aging out of the QMJHL, he joined the Laval Rocket where his contributions as a rookie earned him an NHL contract, and his production only improved from his first year to his second. Still, we’ve seen countless players terrorize league after league only to fade out in the NHL, and it’s incredibly rare for a 23-year-old who’s yet to play any meaningful time in the National Hockey League turn into a top-notch player. What’s a more likely outcome for Harvey-Pinard’s future is that he carves out some sort of a career as a bottom six energy forward, building off his forechecking, tenacity, and goal-scoring ability.
Michael Pezzetta
A fan favourite not for his talent, but his energy. And I don’t mean crashing and banging and pumping up the fans, though he does that as well - I mean the energy he gives off:
There’s no doubt Pezzetta is a fun player - he fights, lays hard hits, and has some surprising offensive tools that shine from time to time, like his between-the-legs attempt versus Florida. But is he an effective player at this point in time?
Pezzetta hasn’t brought much offense or defense to the table this season. He’s been limited to just three points this season in 21 games, almost exclusively on the fourth line, and the team has allowed 2.73 xGA/60 (NST) with Pezzetta on the ice at 5v5 against mostly weak competition, relative to the team’s rate of 2.64. Selfishly, I’d still like to see him stick with the team purely for entertainment value, but he most certainly has some development to undergo in order to last in the NHL long-term.
Pezzetta is an intriguing player who appears to have a handful of NHL skills that he could use to carve out a career as a low-maintenance bottom six forward who excels on the forecheck. He’s not that right now, but he has likely earned his place on this depleted roster for the time being.
Lukas Vejdemo
By now, Vejdemo has served his time with the Laval Rocket. He’s been a member of the team for four seasons and, though he has failed to put up overwhelming offensive results, he’s been a reliable depth contributor for the team as a two-way jack-of-all-trades centerman and his NHL stint has most certainly been earned. Vejdemo’s NHL time has been greatly limited, and his raw play-driving numbers are incredibly mis-representing of the player he is, which is a low-event forward who can make reasonable skill plays and defend efficiently.
Vejdemo falls in the same category as players like Laurent Dauphin and Alex Belzile as a replacement-level forward who can suit up for NHL games in a pinch.
Ryan Poehling
It has been a long time coming for Ryan Poehling. His reputation as a prospect has seen massive fluctuations, from being projected as a reliable middle-six center at the time of his draft, to scorching the World Juniors in 2019, leading fans to believe he had top six upside, to being proclaimed a bust after joining the AHL and struggling in the NHL during his stint in 2019-20. But finally, after a concussion shortened his first solid AHL season last year, Poehling appears to be here to stay. He’s been a mainstay on the NHL roster since mid-November, and the coaching staff’s trust in him has steadily progressed - he now regularly sees top nine minutes, with a high of 18:15 against Florida on New Year’s Day.
Here is an instance of Poehling using his physical tools - his strong suit - to create a scoring chance and a goal for his team, something he’s going to need to do more frequently in order to help his team win hockey games. Additionally Poehling’s defensive results have been poor, sitting last among all Canadiens’ players with more than 100 minutes of time-on-ice in xGA/60 at 3.24. Given his upside lies somewhere in the bottom six as a low-event, two-way forward, this is an area that will most certainly need to see improvement - and while his numbers could be skewed negatively due to the abysmal play of nearly everyone around him, this isn’t a new development - Poehling’s 2019-20 were mediocre as well relative to those around him.
Jesse Ylönen
Unlike those previously mentioned, Ylönen possesses the potential to be an impact player at the NHL level. To date, his AHL production has been impressive - he’s nearly a point-per-game this season in Laval, and his metrics in limited NHL time have been equally impressive. According to Corey Sznajder’s hand-tracked data, Ylönen earned gamescores of 0.980 on December 14th against Pittsburgh, and 0.600 on December 30th versus Carolina respectively, the only two games of his which have been tracked to date. Both of these marks were good for third on the team in that specific game, though these numbers are merely anecdotal at this point given the small sample. Additionally, Ylönen currently sits fourth on the team in raw xGF% among all players to dress for the team this year behind only Artturi Lehkonen, Corey Schueneman, and Sami Niku, despite playing exclusively in games where the Canadiens were severely out-matched both health-wise and skill-wise.
As a player on an entry-level contract, it will be tough for Ylönen to carve out a role against higher-salaried players on one-way contracts competing for the same position - but on merit, Ylönen absolutely deserves to stick around.
Ylönen scored his lone NHL goal on a long bomb through a Laurent Dauphin screen, but it’s been his intelligence and ability to play with others like a kid on the schoolyard that has set him apart from his peers. Among Habs forwards, Ylönen has been the only one to consistently think at the same level as the team’s top offensive threats Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki, making him a strong candidate to play beside those two or on a line with some configuration of high-IQ players in the future. Whether he remains with the team when the storm settles or not, I am confident this won’t be the last we’ll see of Jesse Ylönen in a Canadiens uniform.
Laurent Dauphin
Like Belzile, Dauphin is an AHL veteran with limited NHL experience who is now seeing what could be one final shot at proving himself in the National Hockey League. A wise hockey mind might even call him ‘replaceable’.
Despite that, and perhaps as a by-product of his advanced age, Dauphin has earned the coaches’ trust. Through five games, he’s yet to play under fifteen minutes and has even seen time on the penalty kill. But again, like Belzile, he’s being given a role - but is he succeeding in it? Dauphin has three points in five games - one goal, one primary assist, and one secondary. Dauphin, contrary to his reputation and deployment,, has been a below average driver of defense and an above average driver of offense, producing an xGF/60 of 2.57 and a xGA/60 of 3.90. It’s likely that these numbers aren’t representative of Dauphin’s actual skillset, and if his defensive numbers improve, that coupled with his speed could make him a depth forward.
Mattias Norlinder
At long last, we have arrived at the first of two defensemen on this list. There’s a strong case for Mattias Norlinder as the Montreal Canadiens’ best prospect, and there have been few supporters of Norlinder as loud as myself - which is why it was so disappointing when his injury at training camp prevented him from fighting for a permanent roster spot on the Habs’ blueline this year.
However when he returned to the team, despite a clog of blueliners healthy at the time, management wanted to see what he could offer. Norlinder was given six games - a small sample to draw conclusions from, but we learned a lot nonetheless. Most importantly: Mattias Norlinder is not currently ready for the NHL. Though he showed flashes of brilliance in transition using his skating and craftiness to beat forecheckers, he also struggled mightily defensively, seeing the worst raw xGF% of any Hab this season outside of Brandon Baddock and having a handful of brutal defensive lapses.
Corey Schueneman
Corey Schueneman has paid his dues working up the ranks of pro hockey. Since graduating from Western Michigan University in 2019, he’s played parts of four AHL seasons and has even seen time in the ECHL. Despite ups and downs and a lengthy evolution into his current form, the now 26-year-old Schueneman became one of the most trusted defensemen in Laval last season thanks to his responsible play and transition skills.
Unlike the others in his age group, I earnestly believe Schueneman can have a strong claim to NHL status in the long run. Not only are development curves for defenseman very different from forwards (defensemen tend to peak later in their careers, as the position is much more reliant on learned skills and IQ than talent).
Additionally, the skills that led to Schueneman’s excellence in the AHL have transferred nicely to the NHL so far, as in this clip where Schueneman drives the center lane, earning an assist on Rafael Harvey-Pinard’s first career NHL goal. Shockingly, Dominique Ducharme still let him on the ice after this despite both defensemen winding up beneath the goal line on the play.
As the coaching staff have become more familiar with Schueneman, he’s slowly earned more and more trust - his ice time has increased each game, from 11:36 to 14:24 to 18:25, and he’s seen time on the penalty kill as well. Hopefully this is a sign that the team has plans to keep him around for more than just three games, as the team could use another defenseman with puck-moving skills who doesn’t double as a severe liability (only Chris Wideman, Brett Kulak & Alexander Romanov fit this description currently, though none of them are heavily relied upon when the team is fully healthy).
In addition to these players, Brandon Baddock and Cam Hillis also saw a game, though there wasn’t much noteworthy in their performances. Ultimately, there are only 23 slots on an NHL roster, and not all of these players (possibly none of them) will be here when the Canadiens are healthy again. But regardless, these are all contracted players who are receiving an opportunity to prove themselves to a new management staff at a very opportune time, with only a few months to spare before the trade deadline inevitably leaves the Canadiens down a few more roster players and injuries are occurring as frequently as ever. Only Jeff Gorton himself (or maybe a psychic) knows what’s in store for these players as to their immediate future in the NHL, but all of them certainly have forced Gorton to assess his depth assets to varying degrees, for better or worse.