Prospect Spotlight #1 – Simon Forsmark, Charles-Alexis Legault, Justin Poirier

A new series, it’s only like the 5th one!

By Nick Bass

With a lot of seasons slowly starting to wind down and head towards the playoffs, I wanted to make sure that every Canes Prospect gets some light shone on them. Introduce this, a Prospect Spotlight, where every week I’ll take 3 prospects and summarize how their season is going/how their season went and what development they showed during the season. For the first few spotlights, I asked who people wanted to see the most and these 3 were the first that showed up.

Simon Forsmark, LHD

Forsmark is an interesting defenseman. Averaging around 19 minutes a night as both a LHD and a RHD, Forsmark’s skating is pretty good. This aids in the defensive aspect of his game, which has led him to playing important situations and some PK.

Offensively, he’s great at starting a breakout with a stretch pass. Not a big driver of offense, but a really solid distributor of the puck. I think there’s another level to Forsmark’s game, especially offensively.

Charles-Alexis Legault, RHD

After forgoing his Junior season at Quinnipiac by signing his ELC, I was interested to see how Legault faired in a game that’s faster and more physical. The results have shown a lot of promise, while also revealing some bumps in his development.

In 49 games this season, Legault has 3 goals and 9 assists for 12 points. Astute readers, listeners, and watchers will know that offense isn’t Legault’s calling card. He’s a stay at home defender, which is why he’s been paired with Domenick Fensore mostly in Chicago.

If you has any doubts about if his frame and mindset to separate man from puck would translate to the professional level, don’t. Legault has been very good at using his 6’3, 208 pound frame to lay crushing hits at a rate of about 2-3 a game. His defense has become invaluable, already taking a big role on the penalty kill.

The offense has been there, but in flashes. He’s decent at getting exits with stretch passes and sometimes carries it out himself. His shot is decent, but he’s not the kind of player to shoot at will. He’s one of the most consistent guys on the team when it comes to shooting though, getting at least 1 SOG in over half of his games.

The biggest thing with Legault needs to be consistency. When he is playing at the top of his game, he’s a true shutdown defender who would be perfect as a 3rd pairing guy who plays on the PK at the NHL level. Just needs to stay consistent. Also, has to work on the discipline. His 45 PIMs lead the Wolves defense.

Justin Poirier, W

I’m really happy someone asked about Poirier because it gives the opportunity to address some of the things I’ve been seeing some of you guys ask and post.

I understand that Poirier gets a lot of goals and a lot of points. But we really do have to remember the league he plays in. This isn’t a slight at the QMJHL at all, but comparing Poirier’s stats to say, Nikita Artamonov, isn’t helping anything. The QMJHL is a junior league, where the maximum age is 20. Sure, there is a ton of talent:

Justin Carbonneau (projected lottery pick this year)

Bill Zonnon (top 50-60 pick this year)

Matvei Gridin (28th overall pick last year)

Ethan Gauthier (2nd rounder 2023)

A lot more

But nobody over the age of 20. In a league like the KHL, SHL, AHL, and the VHL (to an extent), guys like Artamonov, Krutov, Nadeau, andUnger Sorum are playing against much more experienced players. Again, not a knock on Poirier at all, but we need to keep expectations realistic.

Back to Poirier, in 58 games (before playoffs), he has 43 goals and 37 assists for exactly 80 points. The biggest thing about Poirier that everyone knows is his shot. The release, the power he can generate, the accuracy. It’s all NHL ready. What’s great about Poirier is that he uses his smaller frame to his advantage, being able to maneuver around players bigger than him and get better positioning.

This season, Poirier has stayed pretty much the same production wise. It does stink that he isn’t hitting back to back 50 goals, but it’s still good that he’s getting 80 points in back to back seasons. The playmaking has taken a nice step, not just relying on his shot to continue to get points. Another good to great year in the QMJHL should have him looking even better.