Jordan Harris is stretching the fun for his senior year of college. The Canadiens’ prospect season will continue for at least one more week.
Posted at 11:26 p.m.
The Northeastern University Huskies won their quarterfinal game by a score of 3-2 against their local rivals Boston College.
With the win, Northeastern advances to the semifinals of the Hockey East division playoffs, which are played in a single-elimination format. The Huskies will now face the University of Connecticut on Friday, with a place in the finals at stake, which will take place the next day.
The winner of the tournament will automatically qualify for the NCAA National Championship, which begins March 24 and concludes April 9. Harris’ season will conclude somewhere between next Friday and April 9. The defender, drafted at 3and turn in 2018, will then have to decide if he agrees with the Habs, or if he waits until August 15 to become a free agent.
If the Huskies lose in the semi-finals or the final, they would still have a chance of receiving an invitation to the national championship, according to what will be agreed by the Pairwise, the ranking tool which allows to prioritize the teams of the different divisions, taking into account in particular the quality of their opponents.
We will have the answer on March 20, the day after the Hockey East final, because that is the day that the national championship table is revealed. According to our information, Harris will wait at least this date before deciding. Obviously, if his team is invited to the national tournament, Harris can continue the adventure. If the Huskies aren’t invited, then he can look at his options in the pros.
Until then, he cannot agree with the Canadiens, because by signing a professional contract, he would automatically lose his eligibility to play in the NCAA.
With only six healthy defensemen, including three who will become free agents without compensation this summer (Ben Chiarot, Brett Kulak and Chris Wideman), the Canadiens are well positioned to welcome Harris right out of college, let alone if Hughes finds taker for one of his backs at the end of the contract.
Another CH hopeful, defender Jayden Struble (2and tour, 2019), also wears the colors of Northeastern, but the Canadian holds its rights until 2023.
And the others
Also in the Hockey East division, Luke Tuch (2and round, 2020) saw its season come to an end when Boston University lost 3-1 to Connecticut in another Hockey East Division duel.
In the ECAC division, Sean Farrell (4and round, 2020) will conclude the quarter-finals on Sunday. Harvard University lost 4-3 to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, thealma mater by Joe Juneau. In this division, the quarter-finals are of format 2 of 3, and the third match will take place on Sunday.
In the Big Ten division, Rhett Pitlick (5and round, 2019) will advance to the Finals thanks to the Minnesota Gophers’ 3-2 win over Penn State.
In the NCHC division, Brett Stapley (7and round, 2018) advanced to the semifinals with the University of Denver. There he will meet Blake Biondi (4and tour, 2020), color holder of the University of Minnesota in Duluth. The case of Stapley is however to be watched since the rights of the Habs on this hope expire on 1er June.
For two other Canadian hopefuls, the season was already over even before the weekend. This is Ohio State guard Jakub Dobes (5and tour, 2020) and Wisconsin forward Jack Gorniak (4and tour, 2018), eliminated last week. However, Gorniak will no longer be a hope for CH for a long time, since the Habs have their rights until 1er June, and everything indicates that the team will not offer him an NHL contract.