I like Mesar but he feels like a piece for a trade package imo.
Emer1929
I feel the most underwhelming Hughes move was the Toffoli trade. Mesar panning out would change that.
AmsroII
Potential future 3rd line winger? No room in the top 6.
jimmym007
I don’t have much expectations for Mesar, realistically I think he was a pick to ease Slaf’s integration, and it worked great. Anything over that is a big bonus in my books, especially seeing guys like Jake Evans once being a #20 on that list
Throaway44009988
Assuming dach can stay healthy, i can project a world where filip mesar isnt a top 9 player on the team. Suzuki, caufield, slafkovsky, dach, newhook, demidov, roy, hage, and a free agent signing/trade would be the top 9 forwards.
I think it makes most sense to use mesar as trade bait at this point. The article did a good job providing context for his stats and his season, but its still objectively been a mediocre 2 years for him since hes been drafted.
outtokill7
Saw him play in Kitchener where he seemed good but the OHL and NHL are very different things.
yeeteridoo
Good player. I think he’ll surprise people in Laval. He was great as a winger last year playing with Kitchener’s best players. His production dipped when he was put as the 2C to try to get Sale going. He’ll push for a top 6 winger spot in Laval this year.
FakeCrash
Let’s do a little comparison…
|Season|Filip Mešár|Mystery Player|
|:-|:-|:-|
|D-1|14 pts in 36 GP (Slovak league), 0,39 PPG|n/a|
|Draft year|16 pts in 37 GP (Slovak league), 0,43 PPG|18 pts in 47 GP (>!Czech!< league), 0,38 PPG|
|D+1|51 pts in 52 GP (OHL), 0,98 PPG|23 pts in 48 GP (>!Czech!< league), 0,48 PPG|
|D+2|52 pts in 45 GP (OHL), 1,16 PPG|46 pts in 77 GP (>!AHL!<), 0,60 PPG|
|D+3|To be continued…|66 pts in 74 GP (>!AHL!<), 0,89 PPG|
|D+4||64 pts in 80 GP (>!AHL!<), 0,80 PPG|
|D+5||29 pts in 67 GP (NHL), 0,43 PPG|
|D+6||47 pts in 81 GP (NHL), 0,58 PPG|
|D+7||69 pts in 81 GP (NHL), 0,85 PPG + 9 pts in 12 playoff games|
|Eventually…||>!608 pts in 1,001 GP across different leagues; if you haven’t figured it out yet there’s really nothing I can do for you!<|
You see stalled development? I see stonks. 📈
eriverside
5’10 , 172 lbs. height is ok if he can put on some muscle. Suzuki is 5’11, 212 lbs and very effective.
Put him on the Ryan Gosling liquid ice-cream diet, 2022 Slaf muscle building regiment, and whatever elite skating coach can help him maintain his speed during this transition.
He reminds me of Pleky. We can always use another Pleky.
kozed
Mesar is the type of player that will need a different environment to give a better idea of the kind of player he really is.
He looked *bored* in Kitchener. There were several, recurring moments when he just went through the motions and just did things out of routine. Like « There, I did the thing, happy? ». That was contrasted by his time in the WJC when he looked fast & furious, the same way he had in Slovakia prior to his draft year.
So the question is: was it Kitchener & the OHL level that bored him, or the North-American small ice & play style?
Moving up to Laval should answer that question, and we gotta hope the issue was just the OHL. Because when Mesar is on, he’s a really fun, hard-to-contain player who brings great speed in transition and smart puck distribution, a combo the Habs don’t really have in the pipeline outside of him.
Yeah the small stature is what it is, but unlike, say, a Sean Farrell, Mesar isn’t contained to the perimeter. He has the speed and moves to drive inside when there’s openings.
What position he ends up playing is also another question mark. Mesar can do the work, but coming back deep in his zone and fight for pucks only to end up being the last forward to leave the zone doesn’t seem to be something he enjoys doing. He actually looks less of a center than a guy like Florian Xhekaj, who just played one year at C in the OHL and exploded because he loves taking as much space as possible and the position afforded him that.
So Mesar’s future might be more suited for a playmaking winger role, where he could really take off early in transition, stretch the ice, and then be a mobile primary passer in the offensive zone.
There’s definitely strong raw skills available here. Now he’ll be in that phase where he has to figure out how to use them to become an efficient pro. That’s the job the development staff in Laval is there to do. Mesar won’t be the first nor last of our prospect who’ll need that stage in Laval to figure out how to put things together. That’s why development is important and is much more than just Ramage, Bouillon and Korpikoski traveling around to have dinners with junior prospects. It’s a multi-leveled, multi-years process.
bcgrappler
Filip will need a huge season this year to not be an after thought by next year.
CrashTestMummies
Mesar was always going to be 2-3 years behind Slaf and obviously not on the same tier. Remember how many were still on the fence about Slafkovsky just 12 months ago.
Let the kid marinate a while longer before the armchair GM’s pencil him into a box
Open-Measurement2026
I’ve watched him a lot in Kitchener and the young man is not NHL material. Too slow, too small and not very creative.
Send him to Laval and see if he can rise to the challenge. But I’ll stick to with my first sentence.
13 Comments
I like Mesar but he feels like a piece for a trade package imo.
I feel the most underwhelming Hughes move was the Toffoli trade. Mesar panning out would change that.
Potential future 3rd line winger? No room in the top 6.
I don’t have much expectations for Mesar, realistically I think he was a pick to ease Slaf’s integration, and it worked great. Anything over that is a big bonus in my books, especially seeing guys like Jake Evans once being a #20 on that list
Assuming dach can stay healthy, i can project a world where filip mesar isnt a top 9 player on the team. Suzuki, caufield, slafkovsky, dach, newhook, demidov, roy, hage, and a free agent signing/trade would be the top 9 forwards.
I think it makes most sense to use mesar as trade bait at this point. The article did a good job providing context for his stats and his season, but its still objectively been a mediocre 2 years for him since hes been drafted.
Saw him play in Kitchener where he seemed good but the OHL and NHL are very different things.
Good player. I think he’ll surprise people in Laval. He was great as a winger last year playing with Kitchener’s best players. His production dipped when he was put as the 2C to try to get Sale going. He’ll push for a top 6 winger spot in Laval this year.
Let’s do a little comparison…
|Season|Filip Mešár|Mystery Player|
|:-|:-|:-|
|D-1|14 pts in 36 GP (Slovak league), 0,39 PPG|n/a|
|Draft year|16 pts in 37 GP (Slovak league), 0,43 PPG|18 pts in 47 GP (>!Czech!< league), 0,38 PPG|
|D+1|51 pts in 52 GP (OHL), 0,98 PPG|23 pts in 48 GP (>!Czech!< league), 0,48 PPG|
|D+2|52 pts in 45 GP (OHL), 1,16 PPG|46 pts in 77 GP (>!AHL!<), 0,60 PPG|
|D+3|To be continued…|66 pts in 74 GP (>!AHL!<), 0,89 PPG|
|D+4||64 pts in 80 GP (>!AHL!<), 0,80 PPG|
|D+5||29 pts in 67 GP (NHL), 0,43 PPG|
|D+6||47 pts in 81 GP (NHL), 0,58 PPG|
|D+7||69 pts in 81 GP (NHL), 0,85 PPG + 9 pts in 12 playoff games|
|Eventually…||>!608 pts in 1,001 GP across different leagues; if you haven’t figured it out yet there’s really nothing I can do for you!<|
You see stalled development? I see stonks. 📈
5’10 , 172 lbs. height is ok if he can put on some muscle. Suzuki is 5’11, 212 lbs and very effective.
Put him on the Ryan Gosling liquid ice-cream diet, 2022 Slaf muscle building regiment, and whatever elite skating coach can help him maintain his speed during this transition.
He reminds me of Pleky. We can always use another Pleky.
Mesar is the type of player that will need a different environment to give a better idea of the kind of player he really is.
He looked *bored* in Kitchener. There were several, recurring moments when he just went through the motions and just did things out of routine. Like « There, I did the thing, happy? ». That was contrasted by his time in the WJC when he looked fast & furious, the same way he had in Slovakia prior to his draft year.
So the question is: was it Kitchener & the OHL level that bored him, or the North-American small ice & play style?
Moving up to Laval should answer that question, and we gotta hope the issue was just the OHL. Because when Mesar is on, he’s a really fun, hard-to-contain player who brings great speed in transition and smart puck distribution, a combo the Habs don’t really have in the pipeline outside of him.
Yeah the small stature is what it is, but unlike, say, a Sean Farrell, Mesar isn’t contained to the perimeter. He has the speed and moves to drive inside when there’s openings.
What position he ends up playing is also another question mark. Mesar can do the work, but coming back deep in his zone and fight for pucks only to end up being the last forward to leave the zone doesn’t seem to be something he enjoys doing. He actually looks less of a center than a guy like Florian Xhekaj, who just played one year at C in the OHL and exploded because he loves taking as much space as possible and the position afforded him that.
So Mesar’s future might be more suited for a playmaking winger role, where he could really take off early in transition, stretch the ice, and then be a mobile primary passer in the offensive zone.
There’s definitely strong raw skills available here. Now he’ll be in that phase where he has to figure out how to use them to become an efficient pro. That’s the job the development staff in Laval is there to do. Mesar won’t be the first nor last of our prospect who’ll need that stage in Laval to figure out how to put things together. That’s why development is important and is much more than just Ramage, Bouillon and Korpikoski traveling around to have dinners with junior prospects. It’s a multi-leveled, multi-years process.
Filip will need a huge season this year to not be an after thought by next year.
Mesar was always going to be 2-3 years behind Slaf and obviously not on the same tier. Remember how many were still on the fence about Slafkovsky just 12 months ago.
Let the kid marinate a while longer before the armchair GM’s pencil him into a box
I’ve watched him a lot in Kitchener and the young man is not NHL material. Too slow, too small and not very creative.
Send him to Laval and see if he can rise to the challenge. But I’ll stick to with my first sentence.