For the last few years, the Montreal Canadiens have been praised for building one of the NHL’s most enviable prospect pipelines.
Lane Hutson claimed the Calder Trophy just last season, and Ivan Demidov is already a trendy pick to follow him with back-to-back rookie honors for Montreal. David Reinbacher, Michael Hage, and Jacob Fowler have each been showered with recognition across prospect rankings.
But while the spotlight has burned brightly on those names, it may be a somewhat less-heralded figure in Owen Beck who ends up making one of the most immediate impacts on the Canadiens’ 2025–26 season.
Montreal’s First-Look Lineup Features Rookie Owen Beck as Third Line Right Winger
Beck, the 21-year-old drafted 33rd overall in 2022, wasn’t expected to grab prime NHL minutes this early in camp. Yet on the very first day, there he was: skating on the third line at right wing, alongside Alex Newhook at center and Zachary Bolduc on the left. For a player whose natural position is down the middle, seeing him slotted in on the wing is both surprising and telling — a sign the coaching staff is testing his adaptability in a competitive lineup battle.
It’s still September, still the part of camp where nothing is set in stone, but there’s something to be said for a prospect who immediately earns a role in a middle-six slot. Arpon Basu of The Athletic touted it as “a very big vote of confidence,” and it underlines Montreal’s willingness to experiment with combinations.
Beck has long been described as a pro-ready player, praised for his two-way awareness and faceoff ability. One area in particular that impresses coaches is Beck’s reliability in the defensive zone — not flashy, but steady. That skillset made him a trusted center throughout his junior career, where he was often tasked with shutting down opponents’ top lines.
The wrinkle now is whether his toolkit can translate effectively on the wing. Playing alongside Newhook, a speedy center who thrives with the puck, Beck may not need to drive play as much. Instead, his skating, defensive awareness, and knack for positioning could make him the complementary piece who keeps the line balanced.
From a roster-construction standpoint, the fit makes sense. Montreal’s depth charts show a glut of forwards fighting for wing spots, while the center picture has stabilized with Nick Suzuki and Kirby Dach at the top. Giving Beck a look on the wing both tests his versatility and potentially accelerates his path to regular NHL minutes.
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Of course, there’s no guarantee this alignment sticks.
Veterans like Joe Veleno, Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson are fighting for roles, and other prospects like Joshua Roy or Oliver Kapanen still have time to make an impression. Beck will also need to prove in exhibition games that he can adjust to the different responsibilities of a winger, but it’s notable that he’s already being given that opportunity — especially when the Canadiens could have buried him lower in the lineup to ease him in.
What Montreal may value most is Beck’s ability to contribute in multiple phases of the game. His intelligence, skating, and versatility make him a “plug-and-play” prospect, and that label looks even more apt now that he’s being tested outside his natural position.
Last season, Beck got a brief taste of NHL action and recorded his first point in February, a moment that hinted that he might not be far from sticking full-time. Now, the question isn’t whether he’ll play in the NHL this season — it’s whether he can carve out a meaningful role from the jump.
Training camp is about possibilities, not conclusions, and Montreal has no shortage of them with its stacked prospect group. But Beck’s spot on the third line at right wing feels like more than just a throwaway experiment. It’s the kind of move that, if it clicks, could give the Canadiens the balanced middle-six they’ve been searching for.
The Calder chatter around Demidov will continue, and Reinbacher’s steady rise will grab headlines. But if Owen Beck shows he can handle NHL minutes on the wing, the Canadiens may have stumbled onto an answer that wasn’t on anyone’s preseason bingo card — a low-profile prospect turning into a high-impact piece of their forward core.
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