Brady Vail & Connor Crisp headed to the Bulldogs for the rest of the season

After an up and down season in the Ontario Hockey League, Canadiens' third round pick (71st overall) Connor Crisp will be heading to Dallas to join the Hamilton Bulldogs for the rest of their season and get some pro experience.

Excited to be heading to Dallas to be joining the @BulldogsAHL for the remainder of the season

— Connor Crisp (@Connorcrispp) March 31, 2014

Crisp was a controversial pick by the Canadiens, a year older than his peers at the draft and without much of an offensive or even defensive pedigree to speak of, but he has impressed this season as a streaky goal scorer with size.

Crisp's increase in production over last year was enough to move him from the 38th spot on the EOTP Top 25 Under 25 to the 33rd spot, but he's still on the outside looking in for the foreseeable future, as much more is expected from a prospect who is realistically in his draft+2 year, and has the size advantage most kids dream of at 6'4" and 225 pounds.

Turning 20 years old on April 8th, Crisp will be in the AHL next season unless the Canadiens decide he's not ready and needs to play an overage junior year. The rest of the season in Hamilton could be considered a trial run for Crisp, getting him used to the pro game.

The Bulldogs have 8 games remaining on their regular season schedule, with an extremely unlikely longshot at the playoffs still available to them.

Update: The Bulldogs have also announced that Brady Vail will be joining the team for the remainder of the season as well. Vail had an excellent season for Windsor, scoring 32 goals and 51 assists in 67 games.

Vail was a 4th round pick in 2012, and has joined the Bulldogs at the end of last season as well. In his 12 games with the Bulldogs he produced one goal and 3 assists.

The PTO will give Habs brass a chance to decide whether or not to offer Vail an entry level contract.