BSM: Mesar making a strong case for himself

Sep 29, 2022 - 10:00 AM

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For their second game of the pre-season, the Montreal Canadiens were on the road to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Losing 3-0, it was about as boring as a pre-season game can be, and didn’t leave a great impression on most of the Habs fans who tuned in.

But one player managed to leave a positive impression on the night, and that was Filip Mesar.

Mesar’s rights are held by the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL, which wouldn’t be a bad place for him to play hockey this season. However, the Canadiens have been non-committal about what they plan to do with him, and he has been performing at a high level throughout both camps, complicating that decision for them.

Plays like that show he can create offense for himself due to his hands, speed, and hockey IQ. He may not have found the net against Toronto, but he was arguably the closest of anyone on the roster that night to doing so. There is some legitimate skill there, and he appears more than capable of remaining among the professional ranks this season.

The team has also tested him out with surefire AHLers, so they must at least be considering the possibility of starting him in Laval. With the way he’s played so far, he has to have passed that test, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he even gets some games alongside locks for the big club roster from here until the end of the pre-season.

Nothing is set in stone, but the question of where he will start this season seems a lot less clear than it was before camp, when everyone was penciling him into the Kitchener lineup.

Click the play button below to listen to the full Bottom Six Minutes, and stay tuned for another episode after tomorrow’s game. Given the lack of goal scoring, I even threw in a bonus short rant about an old coach, for old times’ sake.