The Montreal Canadiens took a chance on Luke Mittelstadt in the seventh round of the 2023 NHL Draft.
Players taken at that stage rarely pan out, but the Habs clearly saw something they liked in the young left-shot defenseman.
Four years later, the Canadiens are starting to look quite validated.
Mittelstadt is down in the AHL at the moment with the Laval Rocket, and he’s putting together some of the best hockey of his life.
Luke Mittelstadt Stats
Mittelstadt has only played five games for Laval this season but already has 10 points — as a defenseman.
He has scored three goals and dished out seven assists. There isn’t another player in the league with that many points so far.
Just as we all predicted. 7th round draft pick rookie defenceman Luke Mittelstadt is leading the AHL in scoring with 10 points in 5 games. https://t.co/Orb0DmNCC2
— Andrew Zadarnowski (@AZadarski) October 17, 2026
It’s not entirely unexpected. Mittelstadt put up a good showing in his first exposure to the AHL at the end of last season with a goal and four assists in nine games.
Still, this is a remarkable start — and it included helping Laval come back from 4-0 down to pick up a win this week.
Luke Mittelstadt Timeline
Mittelstadt started off as a juniors player in the USHL, first for the Lincoln Stars and then the Madison Capitols.
With Madison in 2021-22, he had 55 points in 60 games with 19 goals and 36 assists.
He then went to the college hockey ranks with the University of Minnesota for four years. He scored between 18 and 21 points in all four of his seasons.
In his final season on campus, Mittelstadt had two goals and 19 assists for 21 points in 36 games.
Mittelstadt hadn’t necessarily raised his stock a ton at the NCAA level, but he did prove he’s a reliable player on the blue line, which was enough to get Montreal to plug him right in at the AHL level.
So far, so good.
At 23 years old and just 5-foot-11, Mittelstadt may not be a future NHL star, but he’s pushed his stock up considerably with this hot start to the season.
The Canadiens have a ton of young talent, much of which was more highly regarded than Mittelstadt was — but at the moment, he looks quite impressive.
Mittelstadt Brothers
Luke Mittelstadt is the younger brother of current Boston Bruins center Casey Mittelstadt.
They also have a brother John, who played at Minnesota with Luke.
It’d certainly be quite the sight if Luke made it to the NHL and got to play against his brother Casey.
Canadiens’ 7th-Round Pick Defenseman Leads Entire AHL in Points