NEW VIDEO: The Laval Rocket Find Themselves Among the AHL’s Top 10 Early In the Season

By Amy Johnson, Rocket Sports, Montreal Canadiens Blogger

Coming into the 2024-25 season, there was a lot of hope and optimism swirling around the Montreal Canadiens. After a blockbuster draft where Kent Hughes and company managed to get Ivan Demidov and Michael Hage in the first round, and a buildup of excitement about what this year could bring for the team and fans alike, the preseason pileup of injuries proved to be a bad omen for what was to come.

The past two weeks have been nothing short of abysmal for the Habs. Sam Montembeault has been pulled from the crease twice, the number of goals against is growing faster than most Movember moustaches will, doubts about Martin St. Louis’ effectiveness behind the bench are getting louder, and Canadiens fans are getting restless.

Now that’s not to say that expectations were unreasonable for the season: they’re a few years into the rebuild, have some consecutive solid NHL Draft results, and a big crop of talented prospects on the roster. “In the mix” is a phrase falling flat amongst fans who are quickly tiring of watching their team make a mess of things on the ice night after night.

St. Louis has had to respond to criticism in the press, and my colleague Rick Stephens and I shared and analyzed some of Marty’s sound bites on the most recent episode of the Canadiens Connection podcast.

But I’m ever the optimist, and I don’t believe that the Canadiens will find themselves swirling at the bottom of the league for the entire season. I’m confident that some trades will need to happen to replace one or two struggling veterans (ahem, Savard? Dvorak? Matheson?) and the youngest players will settle into better rhythm as they continue to learn the NHL style of play.

The really good news is that the Habs prospects currently playing in the AHL are showing big signs of promise and positive development. In fact, the Laval Rocket have only lost one of their seven games played so far this season!

Joshua Roy, Owen Beck, Filip Mesar, Luke Tuch, Jared Davidson, Adam Engstrom, and Jakub Dobes are repeatedly and consistently playing brilliantly for Laval.Alex Barre-Boulet has always excelled at the AHL level, and his production has exploded since being put on waivers. Under the tutelage of new Laval bench boss Pascal Vincent, the Rocket have, so far, seemed unstoppable.

In the latest episode of my Rocket Hockey Report video series, I recap Laval’s latest games, provide injury updates and a detailed prospect report, and highlight an impressive string of “firsts” achieved by many Canadiens prospects over the last week before previewing this week’s Laval game schedule.

I invite you to click and watch the full video below, and leave a comment with your thoughts on the prospects’ performances and how the Habs season has unfolded so far!

For daily updates on the Montreal Canadiens and Laval Rocket, follow @RocketSports on X (Twitter.)

Update: The Rocket have announced that Jakub Dobes and Alex Barre-Boulet are day-to-day with injury.

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