Peterborough Petes centre didn't look out of place in his NHL debut and could have a spot in the Habs' lineup to start the 2024-25 season.
The Canadiens offered a glimpse of the future last week, when they used an emergency recall to summon centre Owen Beck from the junior Peterborough Petes for what amounted to a one-game NHL tryout, a chance to see how he has progressed since the Canadiens drafted him in the second round (33rd overall) last July.
Beck, who turns 19 on Friday, didn’t look out of place in his less than 10 minutes of ice time and, while the timetable might be accelerated, he could have a spot in the Canadiens’ lineup to start the 2024-25 season.
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This was head coach Martin St. Louis’s endorsement after Beck’s debut:
“I don’t know how much (playing his first NHL game) is going to help him going back to play junior, but here’s a kid who’s had a great year. He’s able to reach his goal, live up his dream that he played in the NHL. He’s a pretty mature kid. I think he’s going to take that experience …. It’s a confidence booster, for sure. You guys watched the game. He looked very comfortable out there.”
Beck is St. Louis’s kind of player. He can put up numbers — he has 19 goals and 45 points in 38 games this season — but it’s his intelligent two-way play that makes him stand out. He gets high marks for his passing, zone entries, and puck retrievals.
These are qualities that lead to winning teams, which is why the Petes sent two veterans and four draft choices to the Mississauga Steelheads to acquire Beck after he was part of Canada’s gold medal world junior team.
Beck isn’t the only gold medal winner in the Canadiens’ pipeline. Joshua Roy of the Sherbrooke Phoenix has blossomed since he was drafted in the fifth round (No. 150 overall) in 2021. The following season, the right-winger led the QMJHL in scoring with 51 goals and 119 points.
He has been part of the last two gold medal-winning junior teams and, most recently, played on a line with Connor Bedard, the consensus No. 1 prospect in this year’s draft.
“He’s a jack-of-all-trades,” said Team Canada coach Dennis Williams. “He’s done it all for us. He’s been good on the forecheck. He’s been good tracking. Good on the walls. Making plays offensively with his good skill set and finishing off plays.”
Again, it sounds as if he’ll fit right in with St. Louis.
Centre Riley Kidney (No. 63 overall in 2021), who was on the gold medal team in 2022, didn’t make the cut this year, but the skilled offensive player is lighting it up in the QMJHL with 21 goals and 68 points. He ranks second in points per game (1.7), just ahead of Roy (1.676).
Right-winger Filip Mesar (No. 26 overall in 2022) has 12 goals and 27 points in 28 games with the Kitchener Rangers and represented Slovakia at the world juniors.
Centre Jared Davidson (No. 130 overall in 2022) leads a very good Seattle team in the WHL with 27 goals and 62 points in 40 games.
Ottawa 67’s forward Vinzenz Rohrer (No. 75 overall in 2022) is sidelined with a concussion after being upended and landing on his head in a game last month. Before the injury, the Austrian had 35 points in 31 games and an eye-catching plus-21 differential.
Centre Cedrick Guindon (No. 127 overall in 2022) has 17 goals and 55 points in 45 games with the Owen Sound Attack.
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