{"id":814306,"date":"2026-08-15T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/814306\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T09:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:00:09","slug":"top-prospects-for-montreal-canadiens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/814306\/","title":{"rendered":"Top prospects for Montreal Canadiens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Projected NHL arrival: Next season\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How acquired: Selected with No. 69 pick in 2023 NHL Draft<\/p>\n<p>2025-26 season: Laval (AHL): 27 GP, 19-7-1, 2.23 GAA, .916 SVP, 3 SO; Canadiens: 17 GP, 9-6-2, 2.43 GAA, .908 SVP, 1 SO<\/p>\n<p>Fowler made his\u00a0NHL debut Dec. 11 and provided a needed midseason jolt, going 4-2-2 with a 2.37 goals-against average, .912 save percentage and one shutout in his first eight games. He was returned to the AHL on Jan. 16, but Montreal went 11-5-4 during his time on the roster.<\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old returned March 11 and was the backup to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/jakub-dobes-8482487\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jakub Dobes<\/a>\u00a0during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, replacing him in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Second Round against the Buffalo Sabres.<\/p>\n<p>Dobes signed a three-year contract July 2, but Fowler will be expected to push him for playing time this season.<\/p>\n<p>Projected NHL arrival: This season\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How acquired: Selected with No. 26 pick in 2026 NHL Draft<\/p>\n<p>2025-26 season:\u00a0Nizhny Novgorod (RUS): 13 GP, 2-1-3; Torpedo-Gorky NN (RUS-2): 15 GP, 1-4-5; Nizhny Novgorod Jr. (RUS-JR): 33 GP, 10-14-24<\/p>\n<p>After playing at three different levels last season, the hope is Pugachyov can find a full-time role in the Kontinental Hockey League this season. The 18-year-old averaged 9:22 of ice time during his KHL stint last season.<\/p>\n<p>Pugachyov (6-3, 198) plays a power forward style but does need to get stronger. He&#8217;ll have to do that in Russia since he has two seasons left on the three-year KHL contract he signed June 13, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Projected NHL arrival: 2028-29\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How acquired: Selected with No. 34 pick in 2025 NHL Draft<\/p>\n<p>2025-26 season: Ufa (RUS): 59 GP, 16-26-42<\/p>\n<p>Zharovsky (6-1, 163) gave\u00a0Canadiens fans a sneak peek at his high-end skill set during development camp, and the 19-year-old stayed a bit longer after camp ended to train with Montreal forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/ivan-demidov-8484984\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ivan Demidov<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He is expected to play one final season in Russia but count Demidov among those exited for what&#8217;s to come.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I like him a lot,&#8221; Demidov said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a good guy. Working hard. He&#8217;s a little bigger than me, taller than me. He has a bright future if he&#8217;s going to work hard every day in the same way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Projected NHL arrival: Next season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Projected NHL arrival: Next season\u00a0 How acquired: Selected with No. 69 pick in 2023 NHL Draft 2025-26 season:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-814306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}