Even after graduating several prospects to the NHL in recent years, the Habs still have one of the deeper prospect pools in the league. Some of those have had particularly strong seasons to improve their stock within the organization.
After the All-Star break, Laval returned home to wrap up their home stand. With a roster augmented by the return of several healthy players, they took care of business in both of their games to maintain their lead in the North Division.
With the hockey world largely fixated on the upcoming Olympic tournament, it’s a good time to look back at last month and who were some of the Habs’ top prospect and AHL performers.
Laval returned home from the road for a trio of divisional games before the All-Star break, including two against a team close to them in the standings. They took care of business, winning all three, giving them a six-point lead in the division at the break.
After a big win on Wednesday to start their home stand, Laval looked to make it four straight victories as they hosted Cleveland on Friday. It took some extra time but they did just that, coming away with the 5-4 overtime victory.
Laval’s long road trip came to an end this past week. While they left points on the table in Calgary to start, they rebounded well to take a pair of key divisional matchups and gain a bit of ground as they look to hold onto first place in the division.
It was a rare Western Canada road trip for Laval last week. Once again, they continue to scuffle in terms of their performance but they were able to bounce back in the win column, picking up five of a possible six points.
With some weaker opponents on the schedule last week, the Rocket had a great chance on home ice to get some separation in the division. Instead, they lost all three games and only managed three goals as they failed to take advantage of the soft schedule.
Laval had a tough back-to-back set on the road last week. They didn’t play particularly well in either game but Kaapo Kahkonen helped steal a win in Rochester to help them split the week.
The month of December was a strong one for the Habs along with several key prospects (and a couple of veteran minor leaguers). Here are our three stars for the month.