A promising prospect of the Canadiens, who has fallen into oblivion, wants to redeem his bad season

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Elias Edmonson
September 10, 2023 (11:42)

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The Montreal Canadiens' prospect pool is flourishing, with several young talents in the organization seemingly headed for a promising future.

When discussing the best youngsters within the Habs, the names that come up most often are Lane Hutson, David Reinbacher, Logan Mailloux, Joshua Roy, Sean Farrell, etc.

However, there is one who had excited the Canadiens fans a few years ago, but seems to have fallen into oblivion for many, and I am talking about Jan Mysak here.

This second-round pick of 2020, who was ranked 28th by the NHL Central Scouting, had charmed several experts who placed him very high in the list of the Canadiens' top prospects.

Unfortunately, three years after his draft, and now with a disappointing first professional season in the AHL under his belt, this Czech forward has been ejected from most of the recent lists of the top 15 or 20 talents in the organization. He has outright fallen into oblivion in the eyes of many.

Following a season with only five goals and nine points in 40 games, many people seem to have thrown in the towel on the 21-year-old.

However, we should not give up on the beautiful project that Jan Mysak represents, and the main person concerned himself wants the fans to still believe in him.

"I have the skills to produce. I haven't proven it yet. I'm excited to show it," he said.

As rightly pointed out in a TVA Sports article, the prospect message is quite clear: do not give up on me, because I have not given up.

Mysak admitted to having extensively worked on one of his major weaknesses this summer, which is his physical strength.

"I needed to get stronger", he explains. "Stronger in the battles. The guys at the professional level are imposing. Some of them weigh 30 pounds more than me. The priority was to be stronger to prepare myself for pro hockey."

Being a center renowned for his skills at the face-off circle and his complete game on both ends of the ice, he knows he now needs to produce more offense to get noticed.

"It was my first year [full-time in the AHL] and I am hard on myself, but I wasn't good enough. I know I can give more. I agree: we haven't seen my offensive game in the American League yet."

"I am really good at face-offs. I can be effective both offensively and defensively. All my life, I have been used everywhere."

It will certainly be very interesting to follow his progress this year, especially as he will be attending the team's rookie camp in a few days. Mysak is still a promising talent, but he will certainly have to give more this season with the Laval Rocket, so that the organization does not give up on him.