Mailloux and his Defense

[skilles]

Can anybody tell me why he missed 2 years of development?
Seems like something off ice happened but I'm not in the loop. What's the black cloud around this kid?

I believe he took a photo or video of a girl performing oral sex on him and showed his buddies and was suspended. Plus Covid

[STL fan in MN]

Can anybody tell me why he missed 2 years of development?
Seems like something off ice happened but I'm not in the loop. What's the black cloud around this kid?

I believe he took a photo or video of a girl performing oral sex on him and showed his buddies and was suspended. Plus Covid

Yeah, Covid, the suspension for the picture incident in Sweden and then he had surgery too. Missed most of his 17 and 18 yr old seasons.

[skilles]

Can anybody tell me why he missed 2 years of development?
Seems like something off ice happened but I'm not in the loop. What's the black cloud around this kid?

I believe he took a photo or video of a girl performing oral sex on him and showed his buddies and was suspended. Plus Covid

Yeah, Covid, the suspension for the picture incident in Sweden and then he had surgery too. Missed most of his 17 and 18 yr old seasons.

Pretty good sign that he survived all that to be honest, that is a wrap on most pro careers.

[dr0zombie]

I was hunting for the full 2025 2025 NHL team report cards and ran across the ESPN NHL Power Rankings: 1-32 poll, predictions for 2025-26.

This is from April 11. So there is a hug grain of salt here.
https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/446 ... redictions

23. New York Islanders

Still developing. It might sound harsh, especially with Ilya Sorokin in net, but where's the star power beyond that? Mathew Barzal is excellent, but history shows he's not the type to carry a team to the playoffs. Defenseman Noah Dobson regressed this season. Who else steps up to push the Islanders out of the East's lower tier?

A lot of us wanted Noah Dobson. What are the odds that Mailloux ends up being a direct equivalent of Dobson for a FAR lower payment? Honestly in looking back at the last year I am feeling better and better the Blues ended up with Mailloux.

[bixblues]

I'd like to see some of the critique of Broberg's game when we got him. He played more than LM but guessing you'd find a list of complaints about him as well and he's turned out to be pretty good in this environment.

[skilles]

Anyone see any articles or mocks about where Mailloux was projected in the draft before the "incident"?

[Frank Underwood]

I was hunting for the full 2025 2025 NHL team report cards and ran across the ESPN NHL Power Rankings: 1-32 poll, predictions for 2025-26.

This is from April 11. So there is a hug grain of salt here.
https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/446 ... redictions

23. New York Islanders

Still developing. It might sound harsh, especially with Ilya Sorokin in net, but where's the star power beyond that? Mathew Barzal is excellent, but history shows he's not the type to carry a team to the playoffs. Defenseman Noah Dobson regressed this season. Who else steps up to push the Islanders out of the East's lower tier?

A lot of us wanted Noah Dobson. What are the odds that Mailloux ends up being a direct equivalent of Dobson for a FAR lower payment? Honestly in looking back at the last year I am feeling better and better the Blues ended up with Mailloux.

Before Dobson said he wanted to stay in the East, I was convinced that the Blues would have to give up Bolduc, their 1st, and something else to make the cap hit work. Bolduc played for Patrick Roy in juniors, and Roy was apparently a big fan. So if we had done that trade, we would have given up Bolduc, Carbonneau (as it turned out), and something else, and then we would have needed to absorb a $9.5 mil cap hit.

So I agree with you……I’m very interested to see how the Dobson vs Mailloux comparison looks going forward, but I would add Carbonneau into that equation. I’m guessing Mailloux + Carbonneau is going to be a nice win for the Blues.

[Jsrollie]

Shattenkirk was horrible defensively great offensively, but he worked on his defensive game and got better when he played for the Blues. Pair Mailloux with Tucker who's very solid defensively and let him learn. Also, the Blues IMO need not to screw up here and have Pronger work with him as his build reminds me a LOT of when he came here from Hartford. He has the raw materials of a Pronger like dman. He wasn't great defensively when he got here but he learned. You can't teach offensive skill, a player is born with it....Mailloux has that...defensive skill CAN be learned. I think this kid is going to be a very good player as he's on the right team and has the right coach/coaches to help him get there as well as veteran dmen on this team. Hell...if Pronger doesn't work with him, I'd offer Suter a coaches job to work with him...he did an excellent job with Tucker's development last year and he can with all of our young dmen coming up.

[dhsux]

What we should be excited about this kid is that amongst all we've heard about his game his character is what nobody questions. Everything points to him working hard and being coachable. While I don't think he was in a bad environment a change of scenery can also be boost.

I heard the "incident" was an issue with fans when the Habs drafted him, after he had asked not to be drafted.

Montreal is an unforgiving market place so your point on this "change of scenery" might well be just huge for this young man along with the points made by so many here in this thread.

Once again, the Blues coaching and development staff, from skating to the top will be front and center as this player gets his first full year of opportunity.

[dhsux]

Anyone see any articles or mocks about where Mailloux was projected in the draft before the "incident"?

I thought in the interview, I think Strickland thought he was top ten and asked about it but Mailloux did not recall that ranking.

He was a bit unclear on it.

[SRV1990]

Mailloux is a 22 yo dman. He has played 8 NHL games. He WILL make mistakes. He is a two time AHL All Star. The Blues will encourage him to activate offensively. They will also work with him to show him situations where he should and shouldn't take risks. HIs evolution into a more well rounded dman won't happen over night. Watching young offensively gifted Dmen develop isn't for every fan.

The problem noted on the Habs board is he makes more mistakes than a 22yo DMan should. They were not expecting him to play like a vet, but even with rookie glasses his defense was rough. Two example they gave was leaving a player wide open the crease to be a third person along the wall for a puck battle. The other was getting the puck at the blue line while the team had possession in the offensive zone and trying to skate the puck past two defenders and getting picked for a 2 on 0. Both of these don’t scream of 22yr old player making rookie mistakes, but someone who is reckless. As one other poster noted, Monte runs a very discipline defensive scheme so maybe this and the vet presence we have on defense can get him on the right path.

Thank you for the information. Interesting read. Seems exactly like what an inexperienced 22 year old d-man might do. I'm looking forward to him maturing and working these things out of his game.

[SRV1990]

Can anybody tell me why he missed 2 years of development?
Seems like something off ice happened but I'm not in the loop. What's the black cloud around this kid?

I believe he took a photo or video of a girl performing oral sex on him and showed his buddies and was suspended. Plus Covid

It was my understanding he sent it to one buddy and then that person sent it to others. Splitting hairs I know, and most definitely doesn't minimize the fact that it was a terrible thing to do. Just wanted to throw in what I've read about the incident.

[skilles]

Anyone see any articles or mocks about where Mailloux was projected in the draft before the "incident"?

I thought in the interview, I think Strickland thought he was top ten and asked about it but Mailloux did not recall that ranking.

He was a bit unclear on it.

Yeah Ive heard/seen people saying things like that but Ive seen no confirmation of it.

[bluetunehead]

Anyone see any articles or mocks about where Mailloux was projected in the draft before the "incident"?

I thought in the interview, I think Strickland thought he was top ten and asked about it but Mailloux did not recall that ranking.

He was a bit unclear on it.

Yeah Ive heard/seen people saying things like that but Ive seen no confirmation of it.

I haven't seen anything that suggested he was that high. Scott Wheeler did not include him in his Top 32 from Fall 2020, which was before the incident in Sweden.

I think most rankings had him pegged around where he was chosen. The surprise was that Montreal actually picked him after he asked not to be, not necessarily how it compared to his ranking.

FWIW, last summer Wheeler did a 2021 Re-draft story and had Mailloux going at #21 overall. He had Bolduc at #26.

[Harry S Deals]

Anyone see any articles or mocks about where Mailloux was projected in the draft before the "incident"?

I thought in the interview, I think Strickland thought he was top ten and asked about it but Mailloux did not recall that ranking.

He was a bit unclear on it.

Yeah Ive heard/seen people saying things like that but Ive seen no confirmation of it.

I haven't seen anything that suggested he was that high. Scott Wheeler did not include him in his Top 32 from Fall 2020, which was before the incident in Sweden.

I think most rankings had him pegged around where he was chosen. The surprise was that Montreal actually picked him after he asked not to be, not necessarily how it compared to his ranking.

FWIW, last summer Wheeler did a 2021 Re-draft story and had Mailloux going at #21 overall. He had Bolduc at #26.

Blues did pretty well in the 2021 draft class with Bolduc/Mailloux, Simon Robertsson ( 26 6 7 13 12 +9) and Zach Dean. Robertsson and Dean are somewhat forgotten prospects but the book is not closed on either. Both need to string together some long stretches of good healthy AHL hockey

[bluetunehead]

Anyone see any articles or mocks about where Mailloux was projected in the draft before the "incident"?

I thought in the interview, I think Strickland thought he was top ten and asked about it but Mailloux did not recall that ranking.

He was a bit unclear on it.

Yeah Ive heard/seen people saying things like that but Ive seen no confirmation of it.

I haven't seen anything that suggested he was that high. Scott Wheeler did not include him in his Top 32 from Fall 2020, which was before the incident in Sweden.

I think most rankings had him pegged around where he was chosen. The surprise was that Montreal actually picked him after he asked not to be, not necessarily how it compared to his ranking.

FWIW, last summer Wheeler did a 2021 Re-draft story and had Mailloux going at #21 overall. He had Bolduc at #26.

Blues did pretty well in the 2021 draft class with Bolduc/Mailloux, Simon Robertsson ( 26 6 7 13 12 +9) and Zach Dean. Robertsson and Dean are somewhat forgotten prospects but the book is not closed on either. Both need to string together some long stretches of good healthy AHL hockey

Robertsson in particular was commonly ranked significantly higher than where we picked him. The knock seemed to be mainly a question of whether he'd have the skills to match the work ethic. Let's hope he does.