HW 3 Stars: March’s Top Prospects
–
The month of March was a brief one in the hockey world although a handful of Laval players and other Montreal players still managed to make their mark to find a place in the three stars.
The month of March was a brief one in the hockey world although a handful of Laval players and other Montreal players still managed to make their mark to find a place in the three stars.
The CHL’s cancellation of the playoffs and Memorial Cup last week is one for the history books but it also means that decision time has arrived for several of Montreal’s prospects.
After a strong sophomore season at Northeastern, it felt like there was a chance that Jordan Harris would turn pro. However, he has decided to stick around for at least one more year and won’t sign with the Habs for next season.
While he hasn’t been able to debut in North America as he planned earlier this month, Jesse Ylonen now has an entry-level contract under his belt after the Habs signed him on Thursday.
While Gustav Olofsson’s brief stint with the Habs didn’t go well this season, he has been a quality player in Laval. Montreal rewarded him for his efforts on Wednesday, signing him to a one-year contract extension.
It will be a while yet before Joni Ikonen comes to North America as he has signed a two-year contract with Ilves of the Finnish SM-liiga.
We’ve nearly reached the top ten in our 2019-20 HW Prospect Rankings. Some of these players received top ten votes from our writers but ultimately came up a bit short this year.
One of the remaining things to watch for during the break in the schedule is Cole Caufield’s future. Would he turn pro or stay at Wisconsin? He has chosen the latter.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHL instituted a roster freeze at 5 PM EST on Monday. Montreal made one roster move, assigning Jake Evans to Laval.
The third quarter of the season was a tough one for Laval but a lot of the struggles stemmed from a lack of offence. As a result, some of the grades for their goalies and defencemen are relatively high.