Canadiens’ Success with Late-Season College Signees

Currently, the team boasts an impressive 10 former NCAA players on their roster — though this includes several players who were not homegrown (drafted by the team), such as Alex Newhook, Mike Matheson, and Colin White. In addition to the plethora of college talent on the active roster, they possess notable prospects who are either currently playing in the NCAA, or have since graduated to the professional level, such as Sean Farrell, Jakub Dobes, and Jacob Fowler.

Interestingly, the team has had several occasions where bringing a player over from college late in the season for an audition of just a couple of games on an entry-level contract has been a great success. With the long-awaited signing of top-prospect Lane Hutson, here are several instances where a player seamlessly transitioned from the NCAA straight to the NHL — surely an expectation the fans have for Hutson ahead of his debut.

Charlie Lindgren (St. Cloud State University)

Unlike most of the team’s successful former NCAA players, Charlie Lindgren signed with the Canadiens as an undrafted free agent in March, 2016. Fresh off of an impressive 30-win season with St. Cloud State, the Lakeville, Minnesota native forewent his final year of college eligibility to turn pro. In his one-game audition, he stopped 26 out of 28 shots as the Canadiens defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 — an impressive and feel-good story for the undrafted right-catcher.

Lindgren, now 30, is currently the starter the potentially playoff-bound Washington Capitals. He boasts 23 wins along with a shining 2.77 goals-against-average (GAA). Although he bounced up and down from the American Hockey League (AHL) during his Canadiens tenure, it seems as though he has finally found his footing in the NHL, starting in 79 games since the beginning of the 2022-23 season, just one less than the Canadiens’ current starting goaltender, Samuel Montembeault.

Ryan Poehling (St. Cloud State University)

Hailing from the same hometown of Lakeville, Minnesota and playing for the same college as Lindgren, Ryan Poehling has gone on to set career-highs with the Philadelphia Flyers this season. His iconic debut in Game 82 of the 2018-19 season is unforgettable for anyone who tuned in to the exciting final game of the season against the Toronto Maple Leafs. In legendary Hockey Night in Canada announcer Bob Cole’s final game of his illustrious career, Poehling seemingly did the impossible by recording a hat trick on three shots on just over 11 minutes of ice time. Even more impressively, he did so while playing on a line with Jordan Weal and Nicolas Deslauriers — the former played in his last NHL game in 2019-20 and the latter (and also current Flyers teammate) scorred just two goals that season. For good measure, Poehling also added the game-winning shootout goal.

Despite having one of the best NHL debuts of all time, perhaps rivalled in recently memory by only Auston Matthews’ four-goal debut, Poehling never quite found his footing in Montreal and was dealt to Pittsburgh along with Jeff Petry in the trade which brought in current number-one defenseman Mike Matheson. While Poehling never reached the lofty expectations set by the fanbase after his incredible debut, he has now cemented himself as a solid third-line centre and regular penalty killer for the Flyers.

Cole Caufield (University of Wisconsin)

Cole Caufield has become a centrepiece of the Canadiens’ offense alongside emerging star Juraj Slafkovsky and captain Nick Suzuki, forming one of the most exciting young lines in the NHL. Sporting a career-high 27 goals and 64 points in 2023-24, the 23-year-old Wisconsin native was the recipient of a 10-game audition at the tail end of the 2020-21 season after two successful games with the Laval Rocket. Caufield scored a modest five points during that audition, including four goals, though what Canadiens fans surely remember the most what immediately followed — the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Caufield, after being scratched twice in the opening series against the Maple Leafs, went on to record 12 points in 20 playoff games as the team surprised the hockey world by reaching the Stanley Cup Final. What was initially a simple 10-game audition that burned a season off of his three-year, entry-level contract became a 30-game introduction in which the then-20-year-old notched a respectable 17 points. Despite the first 30 games of the 2021-22 season leading to worries about a sophomore slump under then-head-coach Dominique Ducharme, Caufield has obviously now become one of the team’s top scorers and appears to be comfortable in that role for the foreseeable future (as evidenced by the eight-year extension he signed during the 2023-24 season).

The exciting Lane Hutson signing will hopefully emulate at least once of these encouraging late-season auditions. He will make his debut on Monday night against the Detroit Red Wings and will look to make an immediate impact. Should he perform up to expectations and continue to thrive with the Canadiens, he will prove to be yet another example of the team’s success with these late-season college signings.