Playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Levis on Thursday, Calgary Flames forward Jonathan Huberdeau spoke highly of the Montreal Canadiens, even though he poked fun at them for making the playoffs with fewer points than the Flames.
Now that he’s in a Canadian market, the former Florida Panthers player says he’s able to watch much more hockey, meaning that he also gets to watch more Canadiens action. Being in the province of Quebec, he was, of course, asked what he thought of what Kent Hughes and co. are building in Montreal.
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He said he can see they’re building a nice team and that they’ll be good in two to three years, before saying, mind you, they already made the playoffs. They’ve got good players, and Noah Dobson on defense will be good; Ivan Demidov up front will be good as well. He wrapped it up, saying that in two years, the Canadiens are going to be a big team.
He was also asked what advice he would have for Demidov, a third-overall pick in the league. He answered that he’d tell him he got drafted for a reason and to keep doing what he'd been doing, while also making the adjustments the coach asks of course. Then he also mentioned that a young player should do his best not to listen to the noise around him, especially since the Montreal crowd can get very enthusiastic very quickly.
Huberdeau was also asked how he felt about the Panthers winning the Cup again this season, and he answered that it stung when they won it last year, but that he’s over it now, adding that it’s a different team with a different coach than when he was there.
Photo credit: Brett Holmes-Imagn Images
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