The Habs’ most underappreciated prospect at the moment is Tyler Thorpe.
As everyone already knows, the Montreal Canadiens have one of the best prospect banks in the entire National Hockey League.
Few teams, if any, have so many young players with the real potential to make it to the NHL.
The Habs have so many prospects, in fact, that sometimes it’s hard to remember all of them.
This leads to many second- and third-tier prospects flying under the radar and being underestimated behind the big names in the Habs’ prospect bank.
Last year, I told you about Filip Eriksson, who had an excellent season in Sweden, making him stand out as a prospect with great potential.
Well, this year, I’m talking about Tyler Thorpe, whom the Habs just drafted in the fifth round (130ᵉ overall) at the recent draft.
According to prospect analyst Steven Ellis, Thorpe is currently the Tricolore’s most underrated prospect.
At 18 years of age, Thorpe’s 6 feet 5 inches and 212 pounds are nothing short of impressive.
What’s more, Thorpe is a solid skater despite his imposing size, which makes him even more interesting.
He’s a winger who scored 44 points, including 23 goals, in 51 games last season in the WHL with the Vancouver Giants, and this production could clearly be improved considerably last season.
Thorpe has a unique size that’s pretty rare in hockey circles, and so that’s what could see him make it to the NHL one day.
He’s really the kind of player the Tricolore will need one day to complete its third or fourth line.
In fact, my colleague Michaël Petit explained yesterday that the Habs needed more Florian Xhekaj-type energy players, and Thorpe is exactly that.
In short, Thorpe’s 2024-2025 season will be one to watch closely, as he could very well explode and dominate thanks to his size and skating stroke.
For those interested, here are Byron Bader’s model hope cards for Filip Eriksson and Tyler Thorpe.
You can see that Eriksson really exploded last season, as he went from a 24% chance of reaching the NHL to 76%.
With Thorpe, another of the Habs’ late picks, we could really see a similar blossoming this season.
