Logan Mailloux earned a spot on the 2024–25 AHL Top Prospects Team, joining three forwards, one defenseman, and one goaltender among the league’s best under-22 prospects “projected to be the best future NHL players.” The 31st overall pick of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft finished the season with 12 goals, 33 assists, in 63 games.
“It was good. There was some ups and downs. I was playing a more complete game than last year,” said Mailloux evaluating his year. “Towards the end of the year, I got a lot better defensively with some reads and little details that you might not think about as much but they end up making a big difference. [Daniel Jacob] was really good at honing in a lot of that.”
His point production declined compared to the previous season, but that is not a concern to the organization. Vincent’s objective was to improve his play without the puck.
“His capacity to generate offence is one thing, but as a defenseman, you have to defend. We were able to work on that. Daniel Jacob did an extraordinary job with him. He progressed in all of the defensive details of his game,” Vincent noted.
The Ontario native reached his peak at the start of Laval’s playoff run, earning him praise from his coach for his play both sides of the ice.
“At the start of the playoffs, I was playing some of my best hockey this season. I got a little banged up and my game fell off a little bit,” revealed Mailloux. In the second game of the conference final against the Charlotte Checkers, he sustained an upper body injury that impacted his on-ice performance. He finished the post season with six points in 13 games.
Sticking in Montreal
Heading into the season, there were open spots on the Montreal Canadiens roster up for grabs at the blue line. Mailloux remained in the race for one of the openings until the end of training camp, when management decided to send him to Laval to begin the season.
The young defenseman displayed a good attitude despite the disappointment of starting the season in the American Hockey League. “In his mind, he wasn’t coming to Laval. Whether you earned it or not, in their head, they weren’t coming to Laval. But how they reacted to all that, I was really impressed,” said Vincent acknowledging Mailloux’s attitude. Teammate Joshua Roy was also in a similar situation.
The Canadiens recalled Mailloux in October for a five-game stint while an injury sidelined Kaiden Guhle. During that period, Mailloux scored his first career NHL goal, added two assists, and earned a minus-2 rating. He obtained a second chance in February and scored once with a minus-1 rating in two contests.
“Getting a taste a couple of times this year was good for me. I had some good moments up there, some not so good moments as well. I learned from that though and it made me better,” said Mailloux expressing his appreciation of the NHL experience.
With David Savard’s retirement, there’s a position on right defense that is currently available for the Montreal Canadiens. If Kent Hughes decides to leave an opportunity internally for that spot, Mailloux will seek to perform during training camp.
“I’m hoping to come next year, and stick. That’s my goal. I think I’m closer than I’ve ever been,” Mailloux stated. To achieve his goal, he declared that his consistency needs to improve.
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