montreal
Go Habs Go
I can see why some are unimpressed with our top prospects but I don't think we're 'thin'.
We're outside of the top 10 and we still got quite a few players with legit NHL potential.
depends on what someone's definition of thin is. I think the Habs prospect pool heading into the draft was deep but light on top line talent with size/skill. They have a number of interesting prospects, but the bulk of them have serious issues/holes in their games. Most of them just lack size/strength and the NHL is clearly changing to a speed game that smaller players can thrive in.
So for the Habs, their prospect pool is full of wild cards. How good can Lehkonen be? He ripped it up in the SHL playoffs but can he do it in the NHL playoffs in time? Reway is highly skilled and could be a 1st liner in the NHL some day or he could be a bartender in Slovakia in a few years if he doesn't grow into a more well rounded player and solve his issues. Evans had a breakout year and with some added strength mass could be one of our better prospects. Vejdemo showed good things in the SHL at 19, if he continues to progress at a good rate over the next few years they could have a solid prospect on their hands. Mete is small but fast, in several years who knows what he could bring to the Habs as he seems to be the kind of defensemen that the NHL is moving towards (since I assume he will get bigger over the next 5 years or so) Perhaps Hudon turns into a solid NHLer, or Ghetto, or Carr or Bitten. The first 3 all got it done in the AHL, and have shown some things at the NHL level, now we need to see how much they can progress or not.
Goalies are so hard to get a read on, but who knows if Fucale figures it out or not. He's shown he can win big, but he's also shown a number of holes in his game. Lindgren was good in the NCAA, hopefully he can turn into something. McNiven was impressive on a poor defensive team, we'll see how it goes for him once he turns pro after this season. Hawkey was the top goalie in the USHL as a rookie, is at a upcoming program that recently won a national championship and had another good year. If he gets playing time we'll see how it goes for him.
There's a lot to like and there are a lot of questions/concerns with many of these players which is not all that surprising since we are talking about 18 - 21 year olds for the most part. In a few years we might have some real gems on our hands or things could be looking kind of bleak, at this point it's hard to say. We know that from the past our head scout has found a lot of NHLers but we don't know how much things have changed for him in the organization under the new management. There's also concerns imo over the development, which of course have been stated many times on this board. This past season was clearly our best in terms of the AHL call ups over the past few years so perhaps it's not as bad as some like myself feel it's been under the current development team (though for me it's mostly the AHL side that I worry about)