Even the team’s commentator contributed to the successes.
Reverse jinx never fails
Just as the Canucks broadcast team mentions to watch out for the Panthers’ shorthanded strength, Vancouver scores right off the draw pic.twitter.com/11tVuTgT2d
– Brandon Montour covers up the puck on the goal line with his hand
– Play is reviewed by the refs
– Determined that it’s no goal, penalty shot awarded
– Brad Marchand goes wickets to get the B’s on the board pic.twitter.com/5kItZjA55E
According to many simulated drafts ahead of the upcoming draft, Anton Frondell, the Swede, is likely in the top-5. But he is the least talked about in the top-5.
Matthew Schaefer, James Hagens, Porter Martone, and Michael Misa are attracting much more attention.
However, today, on the podcast The Sick Podcast – Recruits Draftcast, Grant McCagg shed more light on Frondell, a guy who he believes is neck and neck with James Hagens.
Anton Frondell is looking like the real deal! @grantmccagg: «I’ve got Schaefer #1 and then it’s basically a toss up between Frondell and Hagens»
— The Sick Podcast – Recruits Draftcast (@sickpodnhldraft) December 13, 2024
Without being as intense, Simon Boisvert has also praised Frondell’s skills recently on the podcast Process.
McCagg is clearly a much bigger fan of Frondell. He highlights that he is excellent defensively and that he has quickly risen in the rankings.
I have Matthew Schaefer number one, and James Hagens and Anton Frondell are practically neck and neck. – Grant McCagg
The Snake and the former CH scout are on the same page about Schaefer, then.
McCagg would slightly prefer Hagens, but it’s much closer than one might think. In Sweden, the NHL prospect looks good. Last year in the Swedish junior league, the 6-foot, 179-pound center scored 39 points in 29 games. And this season, he has tallied seven points in 10 games.
In the Swedish elite league, it has been a bit more complicated for two years (four points in 16 games), but it is still a professional league…
With the selection of Ivan Demidov and Michael Hage during the last draft, it’s quite easy to forget about the other players selected by Montreal.
But we should not forget that a certain Aatos Koivu, Saku’s son, was drafted by Kent Hughes and his team.
The Finn has not been discussed much this season, so I’ll do it now. News about the young forward: he missed the last five weeks of his team’s activities due to mononucleosis.
A fairly serious condition kept him sidelined, therefore.
Fortunately, he is back and seems to be in full health. He scored a goal in a 2-1 victory.
But to return to his nasty illness, the CH’s third-round pick in 2024 also had a very swollen spleen.
The young man shared this experience with the Finnish media Yle and TVA Sports later picked up the news.
During the last two matches of this tournament, I noticed that I had the flu. I wasn’t thinking about it anymore. However, when I got home after the tournament, I realized that something was wrong. – Aatos Koivu
He returns to play just in time because, with the upcoming World Junior Championship, Finland will reveal its roster in the coming days. Koivu will have a few games to prove himself and possibly secure a spot on his nation’s roster.
One thing is certain, the young man would like to be part of the journey.
Belichick’s five-year contract will pay $1 million a year in base salary and $9 million a year in supplemental income. He also can receive as much as $3.5 million in bonuses per year.
Simon Boisvert is someone well-known in the hockey world in Quebec.
He notably worked in the QMJHL (with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles) as a scout because he dreamed of reaching the NHL.
Today, you can hear him on TSN, BPM Sports… And also on his podcast (Processus), which he hosts alongside journalist Mathias Brunet.
That said, Mathias Brunet and Snake were guests on Louis Morissette and Jean-Philippe Wauthier’s podcast (Entre la poire et le fromage) and Simon Boisvert shared an interesting piece of information.
He has been hired by a junior team:
Last week, I was hired by a junior team. But I can’t say which one because I want to continue the podcast. – Simon Boisvert
The episode in question of the podcast can be found here:
Is he talking about a QMJHL team? If so, it would be a return for him to the junior league in Quebec…
If not, has an OHL team approached him? A WHL team? And what is his official role?
In all this uncertainty, what we do know is that Snake claims he does not want to reveal the identity of the team in question because he does not want to stop hosting his podcast with Mathias Brunet.
That makes sense.
Overall, this is great news for him.
We know that Snake loves to follow young players and prospects (it’s his specialty) and evidently, there is a team that has appreciated his work since he is no longer employed by a team in the QMJHL.
LAVAL, QC - OCTOBER 18: Look at Laval Rocket defenseman Logan Mailloux (24) during the game between the Rochester Americans and the Laval Rocket on October 18, 2023, at Place Bell in Laval, QC (Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Logan Mailloux continues his development in Laval.
He played five games with the Canadiens at the start of the season (and he did well), but he needs time before he becomes the defenseman that people think he can become.
It is worth noting that he is having a great season in the American League with a total of 14 points in 19 games.
The more time goes on, the closer he gets to the National Hockey League because he is making progress.
But in the eyes of Pierre McGuire (TSN 690), Mailloux is so good down there that he deserves the chance to be recalled by the Canadiens soon.
McGuire argues that Mailloux is “dominating” down in Laval… and that a stint in the National League could be a sort of reward for the young defenseman.
Would it hurt to recall Logan Mailloux to give him a chance to play a few games?
Not necessarily.
But where I get stuck is when I look at the statistics of the player in question over the past month.
Mailloux is in one of his worst stretches since the beginning of his professional career: he has one goal and one assist in his last twelve games and he has a differential of -7 during that period.
For a guy who is supposed to be dominating…
(Credit: Screenshot The AHL)
Logan Mailloux had a great streak to start his season in Laval, but it has been quieter for a while now.
And that’s okay. The goal is not to criticize the young man… But seeing that he is not in the most glorious stretch of his career, I think the idea of recalling him is a bit unnecessary.
There is no hurry, after all.
Things are going well for the Canadiens (three wins in four games), the players up top are healthy, and on the other side, the Rocket – which is going through a tough stretch – needs its #1 defenseman to win.
Especially since we know the player’s potential. We saw him perform well at the beginning of the season in the NHL, particularly offensively (three points in five games)… and we know he has the tools to become an important player in Montreal in the near future.
My point is this: let him develop in the best possible way.
In Brief
– Good.
The #leafs have assigned Alex Nylander to the AHL Marlies after he cleared waivers.
Dach has only two goals and seven assists in 28 games this season.
Before finally finding the back of the net (a desert) on Monday night against the Ducks, he had gone 19 games without scoring a single goal. All this while playing on the bottom six, now alongside Juraj Slafkovsky and Patrik Laine…
On Monday, Slafkovsky did not register a single shot on goal. And he didn’t even spend 15 minutes on the ice…
Logan Cooley and Shane Wright, both selected after Slafkovsky, are currently having great moments. And what about Lane Hutson, selected 61 ranks after the first overall pick (Slafkovsky) in 2022?
Juraj Slafkovsky is going through tough times.
(Credit: Getty Images)
It is time to see Slafkovsky start to play like a first overall pick. Especially since he will start his eight-year contract valued at $7.6 million per season next season!
And he will earn no less than $10 million in 2025-26!
No, Slafkovsky is not playing like a $10 million guy right now. Not at all…
But he is now considered a star player. He must deal with the pressure and expectations that come with it.
Kirby Dach is a guy making less than $4 million…
Alex Newhook? Less than $3!
But Slafkovsky is one of our leaders in offense. When you are rebuilding, you must ensure that your highest-paid young forwards develop properly.
Yes, the Slafkovsky situation is starting to worry me.
And when you don’t feel it – and you need it – you just have to post a photo on social media to get it back.
Unlike “playing for the Panthers, Ducks, Kings, Sharks, or the Lightning,” let’s say…
Does Slafkovsky get his adrenaline fix too easily by being a star in Montreal and Slovakia? It’s possible…
But we must not underestimate the impact of criticism on players, especially on social media. A guy like Andrei Markov never let himself be affected by people’s comments, and it helped him achieve long-term success in Montreal.
A guy like Kirby Dach seems – just like Mika Zibanejad, by the way – to care too much about what people think of him.
I dealt with that for a few years (career in the music industry and the start of my journey in the sports media universe), but I realized a few years ago that I couldn’t control what people think of me and that very often, what they think is far from reality.
Let’s hope that Dach and Slaf will find a mental place to retreat to in order to find success again in a market like Montreal.
SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA - 2024/12/08: Ivan Demidov (91) of SKA, Vsevolod Logvin (11) of Barys Hockey Club seen in action during the hockey match, Kontinental Hockey League 2024/2025 between SKA Saint Petersburg and Barys Kazakhstan at the Ice Sports Palace. (Final score; SKA Saint Petersburg 1:0 Barys Kazakhstan). (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Here we go.
In light of today’s match for Ivan Demidov’s club, Roman Rotenberg has chosen to sideline the talented prospect from the CH. He will not even be the 13th forward today.
But since Roman Rotenberg is also the coach of the Russian club and 17 members of SKA are part of the team, it was to be expected that Demidov would play less than usual.
Why? Because his club is similar to SKA (a club where he plays too little), but stronger at the same time. And the opposition is better than a normal KHL match.
Throughout the tournament, it remains unclear how Demidov’s playing time will be managed. He is, after all, an 18-year-old young player. Therefore, it is not entirely abnormal to see him sidelined in the duel against the rest of the world.
Let’s remember that Connor Bedard was not chosen for the Four Nations Tournament. That puts things into perspective.
When the CH acquired Noel Hoefenmayer (a defender who is set to play for the Laval Rocket and will likely never really be called up by the Canadiens), we didn’t really know who he was.
And now, things are coming out about him.
From his profile on Hockey DB, we see that Hoefenmayer is a guy from Toronto who played his junior hockey in Ottawa. He is from Ontario, but despite that, his father cheers for the CH.
The proof?
When Rupert Hoefenmayer was raising his family in Toronto, he had a bathroom in the colors of the Canadiens. Even though the son was born in Toronto, the father grew up here in Montreal.
He did this in every detail. And when we look closely, we see that it’s something.
Mikaël Filion, from RDS, spoke to the Rocket player who recounts that when his father sold the house, he wanted the bathroom to remain in the colors of the Montreal Canadiens.
You won’t be surprised to learn that the father was happy to see that his son Noel would continue his career in Laval. After all, he has always been driven by his love for the CH.
All my friends were Maple Leafs fans. I don’t know if they liked that [the bathroom]. – Noel Hoefenmayer
It should be noted that it was in French, on RDS, that Noel Hoefenmayer and his father watched all the Canadiens games when he was young. His father kept that part of him.
If Hoefenmayer were to eventually be called up (I doubt it strongly, though), it would make a nice story.
Yesterday, when we looked at this, the theme of battles was important in the training.
First of all, we saw Arber Xhekaj and Lane Hutson pretend to fight. Let’s agree it would have been the end for the Sheriff if he had injured the American tornado during a practice fight, right?
Aside from the stunt with Hutson, we saw that Michael Pezzetta, Jayden Struble, and Arber Xhekaj all practiced a bit more seriously their techniques for fighting on the ice.
They were with another man (who clearly wasn’t Georges Laraque) to do this.
It’s not a bad thing to have a few things like that during a training. After all, the three players in the video are possibly the three guys most likely to fight.
I’m not sure that knowing two defensemen and a guy who never plays are the most likely to fight (it kills the rhythm to not play with six defensemen after a fight) for the CH… but that’s another debate.
Even if guys like Josh Anderson and Kaiden Guhle have fought recently and Struble along with Pezz are options, it remains that it’s mainly Xhekaj who is the tough guy on this subject.
In any case, he is the one that fans want to see when there’s trouble.
: @IslesMSGN pic.twitter.com/iCH7XqYUYo
pic.twitter.com/NrE6lb3XR8
pic.twitter.com/k2mC1MO24O
pic.twitter.com/u3unciLEvo
pic.twitter.com/tqRc5xpsQs
pic.twitter.com/4ZlndHk79U
at the 
