Caron’s five-point night paces Huskies’ attack
Jordan Caron, the Bruins’ top pick in last summer’s draft, scored a pair of goals and added three assists in the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies 7-3 pasting of the Moncton Wildcats.
For Caron, it was his third career five-point game in the ‘Q’, the other two having come with the Rimouski Oceanic. He was dealt to the Huskies in December after spending his entire three-plus previous seasons with Rimouski.
Caron, 19, missed nearly both of the junior season’s first two months with a collarbone fracture he suffered at World Junior Evaluation Camp in August, and then got off to a slow start offensively. After winning a silver medal with Team Canada in the World Junior (Under-20) tournament, the right winger and Sayabec, Quebec native returned to action with Rouyn-Noranda and has picked up the pace, tallying 6 goals and 14 points in 9 games with the Huskies (he had 9 goals and 20 points in 20 contests with Rimouski at the time of the trade).
The big (6-2, 205) forward is a left-hand shot who plays the off-wing and has some solid offensive upside. Already possessing a pro-caliber release, Caron is a junior scorer, but as shown in the WJC, he can play a grinding, defensive forward role. His puckhandling as demonstrated in Saskatoon is better than advertised and he’s a chacter player similar to Patrice Bergeron in that he may not be the fastest skater, nor does he play an overly physical game, but he makes up for the lack of speed and big hitting with intelligence and a hustling work ethic.
The game had several intriguing storylines: Moncton is a top contender for the President’s Cup/QMJHL Championship. In addition to high-profile 2010 draft candidates Brandon Gormley and Kirill Kabanov (expected back sometime this month after missing much of the past two monthsafter wrist surgery), the Wildcats recently acquired veteran Kelsey Tessier to boost their scoring and got goaltender Nicola Riopel back from the pro ranks after being drafted and signed by Philadelphia. Two more big names who round out Moncton’s deep and balanced squad are offensive defenseman David Savard (no relation to Marc) and small, but skilled winger Gabriel Bourque, both drafted in 2009 by Columbus and Nashville respectively.
Coming into last night’s match, Moncton had won 12 consecutive games. However, they were without all three of Gormley, Kabanov and Tessier. A playoff rematch between these two clubs should be an exciting draw if it comes to fruition.
Gormley is a talented two-way defenseman with size and very good skating ability, although he’s not the physical specimen that Kingston (OHL) defender Eric Gudbranson is. Right now, scouts are divided between Gormley and Gudbranson as to who the No. 2 defenseman in the draft is after American Cam Fowler. Kabanov is a high-end scoring talent who was just hitting his stride when he went down with the wrist injury. His draft position could take a big hit, as NHL teams will be leery of spending a high pick on him not only out of fear of lasting damage to the wrist, but because of his status as a Russian (given recent issues with players like Alexander Radulov and Nikita Filatov jumping to the KHL).
Tags: boston bruins, caron, draft, prospects
