Filip Mesar Enters Make Or Break Year In Laval
The Canadiens' 2022 first-rounder is heading into the final season of his entry-level deal without an NHL game to his name.
Filip Mesar is out of runway. The forward Montreal took 26th overall in the 2022 draft is entering the final season of his entry-level contract, and he has yet to play a game in the NHL.
Mesar spent this past season with the Laval Rocket, appearing in 71 games and finishing with nine goals and 18 assists for 27 points. That was a step up in volume from 2024-25, when he put up four goals and 18 points in 42 games, but it is not the kind of production that forces a decision from an NHL club.
That is the problem heading into 2026-27. Third and fourth AHL years are where prospects either separate themselves or drift, and the contract clock makes the timing blunt for Mesar. He needs a real jump, not another season in the same range.
The age still works in his favor. Mesar is 22, young enough that a breakout is entirely plausible and common enough at his stage in the American Hockey League. Plenty of forwards take until their third pro season to figure out the pace of the league.
But the margin is gone. Another middling year in Laval and the questions stop being about development and start being about whether he has a future in the organization at all.
