Jacob Fowler on the Verge of Leaving the NCAA?
While Samuel Montembeault had shown interesting progress during the 2022-2023 season, the Montreal Canadiens' management still decided to focus on three goaltenders during the last draft.
Indeed, Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton selected American prospect Jacob Fowler in the third round, as well as goaltenders Quentin Miller and Yevgeni Volokhin in the fourth and fifth rounds, respectively.
Clearly, despite the Quebecer's exploits, the Montreal leaders wish to quickly find a successor to Carey Price, thus improving their goaltender prospect pool. According to observations by several experts, the Canadiens hit the mark by acquiring two extremely talented goaltenders.
Notably, as revealed by Marc Antoine Godin in a recent episode of the "Tellement hockey" podcast, some leaders of the Montreal Canadiens organization think that the Russian goalie selected at the 144th rank, Yevgeni Volokhin, might have an even more promising future than his counterpart Jacob Fowler.
However, returning to Jacob Fowler, the 19-year-old was playing his first season in college this year and, despite the challenge that presented itself, he was simply exceptional. The goaltender played 33 of the 35 games contested by Boston College, compiling a frankly impressive record of 27-5-1. He also recorded spectacular stats with a goals-against average of 2.23 and a save percentage of .923.
In recent days, great news was announced regarding the American prospect, who was named to the Hockey East All-Star team. Moreover, the goaltender is one of the three finalists for the Mike Richter Award, which is given to the best goaltender in the NCAA.
While no one doubted his abilities, let's just say his first season in the NCAA has certainly exceeded the expectations of the management. Jacob Fowler is clearly showing that he has the potential to become a leading goaltender in the NHL. It's still too early to say with certainty that he will become the organization's next number one, but it's fair to say that his pedigree is very encouraging.
Jacob Fowler with the Montreal Canadiens as early as the 2025-2026 season?
In this regard, during his appearance on the "The Sick Podcast With Tony Marinaro," Pierre McGuire mentioned that we could see the 6 foot 1 inch, 200-pound goaltender in Montreal in the near future. According to him, if Jacob Fowler joins the Laval Rocket next year and plays close to 60 games, he could carve out a spot with the CH in 2025-2026.
"I think they [Boston College] have a legitimate chance to win the NCAA tournament. I think if they win the NCAA tournament, they're going to lose a lot of players, but if they don't win, they will have a lot of players returning next year.
So, if they win, I'd try to get Fowler out of Boston College now and give him a full year in the AHL next season, and then I think he'll be very close to playing in the NHL." - Pierre McGuire
Wow! So, Jacob Fowler could join the Montreal Canadiens in less than two years? That would be a very interesting outcome for Montreal fans!
Certainly, this will be a situation to closely follow in the coming days as Boston College faces the University of Massachusetts tonight. It's worth noting that if Jacob Fowler's team wins today, they could face Lane Hutson and Macklin Celibrini in the Hockey East division final.
Watch the excerpt right here:
| POLL |
22 MARS | 186 ANSWERS Jacob Fowler on the Verge of Leaving the NCAA? Do you think Jacob Fowler will be a star? |
| Yes | 162 | 87.1 % |
| No | 24 | 12.9 % |
| LIST OF POLLS |
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