Excerpt from the HabProspects.com article:
This year the Montreal Canadiens sent several of their top forward prospects to the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League, in what has been a breeding ground for the parent club who have had seven-teen players from their farm club appear in at least one game so far this season. The club sent Max Pacioretty, Ben Maxwell, Ryan White, David Desharnais, Brock Trotter, defensemen Yannick Weber, Oliver Latendresse, and J T Wyman, an interesting mix of skilled young players and they have lived up to that with an impressive six rookies among the top thirty first year players, seven if you count Olivier Latendresse’s stats prorated over a full season.
The Bulldogs have been among the top teams in the AHL this year and that in part is due to the offensive abilities of the rookies, with three players also making an appearance in the NHL as Pacioretty, Maxwell and Weber all made their debut to both leagues this year after playing in the NCAA and CHL respectively this time last year. Going into the All Star break, the Dogs currently have two of the top four rookie scorers as Ben Maxwell and David Desharnais both sit tied for third overall in scoring among rookies just one point behind the rookie league leader, with Maxwell missing seven games due to his trip to the NHL.
All of the Bulldog first year players have been excellant this year. But the older ones, (Wyman, Desharnais, Latendresse, Trotter) are in pretty tough. Perhaps with a good season they can catch on with another organization, but the chances of any of them playing regularly in Montreal are slim to nothing.
However, the younger kids, Maxwell, White, Weber, and Pacioretty, have an excellant chance to springboard into the NHL, this season or next. Pacioretty could well stick with the big club for the balance of the season, there aren’t a lot of natural left wingers on the team, and the best of them, Tanguay and Higgins have missed a lot of time with injury.
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