Gorton Excited About 5 Prospects

While some fans and media members are getting impatient and thinking the rebuild has hit a wall, Montreal Canadiens vice president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton explained on Amazon Prime on Monday that the Habs don't have all of their main pieces yet.

For him, there are five prospects that will be difference maker when they join the Canadiens. Up front, he mentioned Michael Hage and Ivan Demidov. There's no denying that both are having great seasons so far, although Hage has been stopped by an ankle injury for now and Demidov by his coach who refuses to give him ice time because he won't sign a contract extension.

Related: Hockey Canada Didn’t Snub Hage

Then, on the back end, he identifies both David Reibacher and Logan Malloux as game changers. People tend to forget about the former since he's currently injured, but he remains a fifth-overall draft selection and has a huge upside.

As for the latter, some had hoped he would have been ready to make the jump to the NHL this season, including Kent Hughes who traded Jonathan Kovacevic to make room on the right side, but not all defensemen develop at the speed of light. It's not because he needs a second year in the AHL that he's not as good a blueliner as the Canadiens thought he would be when they drafted him.

Finally, in net, Gorton spoke about Jacob Fowler who is having an amazing sophomore season with Boston College in the NCAA. The Canadiens VP is not the only one to speak highly of the young goaltender, on a recent episode of The Sick Podcast, Pierre McGuire even compared him to Martin Brodeur. That's quite a comparison to live up to. In 15 games he has a 11-2-1 record with a 1.73 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage.

Related: Jacob Fowler Is On the Right Development Path

It will be interesting to see how well those five prospects progress, but from what we've been hearing, one of them will have an immediate impact when he crosses the pond...

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