2023 Montreal Canadiens Top 25 Under 25: #15 Sean Farrell

Introduction

Sean Farrell had a tall task ahead of him to best his 2021-22 season. In his freshman year with Harvard, he translated the great playmaking talents he’d shown in the USHL into well over a point per game in the NCAA, ranking fifth in team scoring in his first year.

His first collegiate season was broken up by a trip to Beijing to compete in the Winter Olympics with Team USA, where he netted six points in four games to lead a team made up of plenty of university players in the absence of NHLers. After returning to Harvard to close out his season, he once again took up international duty at the World Championship, this time netting six points in 10 contests.

What he did for an encore was boost his production up over one-and-a-half points per game. His 53 points in 34 NCAA matches gave him an 11-point lead over the second-best scorer on the team at the end of the year, and that also included doubling his goal total from 10 to 20.

His team couldn’t repeat as conference champions, but Farrell himself raked in accolades at the conclusion of the season, among them ECAC and Ivy League Player of the Year awards, various First Team All-Star nods, and a spot among the first round of finalists for the Hobey Baker Award.

With that performance, he and the Montreal Canadiens’ development staff didn’t feel there was much left for him to prove at the NCAA level, and he signed his entry-level contract with the Habs in late March. He played six of the final eight games of the NHL season and scored his first goal, the only point he recorded. For a second consecutive year, his season came to an end in a Team USA jersey at Worlds in Tampere, Finland.

Voting

Six of the panellists regard Farrell as a top-10 player on this list, but that is down from nine at this time last year. There’s a group of equal size that has him at 15th or lower, including the community ballot.

T25U25 History

Farrell drops the same seven spots in the list as he did among community voters versus a year ago. He was destined to drop a few places with the addition of David Reinbacher to the fold and the exceptional performance of Lane Hutson, but his lacklustre debut stint in the NHL saw him take a sizable drop down the order.

History of #15

Strengths

As the 33 assists he registered with Harvard last year indicate, Farrell is a quality playmaker. His excellent awareness of the ice around him allows him to keep track of the other players, and he can find the teammate in the best position for a scoring chance with a crisp pass.

He ensures those lanes are open by tricking defenders into thinking he’s going to make one play before executing another, faking his second-best option and then connecting on the first. Some quick last-second stick-handles move the puck just away from an attempted play on the puck, and that gives him that much more space to make his moves.

The passing ability was the only projectable skill he possessed when he was selected 124th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft. Over the two years he spent at Harvard, he added more of a shooting element to his toolbox, continuing some of those late dekes into a wristshot that has grown more potent over time. It’s not at the point that he will ever become a prolific goal-scorer in the NHL, but he needed to develop at least the threat of a shot to prevent defences from simply ignoring him as a shooting option and focusing solely on closing off his passing lanes.

His skating and ability to deal with contact also improved greatly in his brief college tenure. At 5’9″, those are areas he will need to continue to develop to become an impactful player at the top level, but the rapid growth is a good sign that there’s still plenty of room to improve those areas now that he’s a professional player.

Weaknesses

The lack of size and physicality were always the main concerns with Farrell, and his difficult start in the NHL reinforced those doubts for some. His six games ended with the Canadiens earning just 41.7% of the shot attempts while he was on the ice, and 37.1% of the scoring chances.

A major part of the problem was his inability to get involved in puck battles. He happened to jump into a late-season schedule versus several teams still fighting for playoff spots, and he wasn’t prepared to deal with that level of intensity. Montreal was down to Options B or C at various positions with all the injuries they had, and were in no position to insulate him to make his transition smoother.

Projection

Perhaps we had been spoiled by recent post-NCAA debuts from Cole Caufield and Jordan Harris as they found success immediately. It was apparent that Farrell had more work to do to have an impact similar to those two; still a work in progress.

There is now a question of whether he left university too soon with several areas still to be worked on, but it’s hard to argue he would have received the necessary challenges at Harvard given last season’s performance. He needed a higher level to truly test his weaknesses, and he will receive that this season, whether it’s in the NHL or the AHL.

He and the coaching staff have had four months since the season ended to address the areas of most concern and give him his summer plan. Adding strength to deal with stronger defenders and have a chance of coming away from board battles with the puck had to be the top priority, and we will see how that physical development has gone when training camp begins.

A playmaker will need some time with his linemates to develop the proper chemistry for offensive chances. Farrell may have the awareness and vision to find teammates wherever they are, but those players still need to learn what he perfers to do with the puck, and vice versa. It may just take a full training camp with everyone starting from the same point – and a healthy point – for him to look more comfortable in an NHL environment, perhaps with players who are better on the defensive side and winning battles like Kirby Dach and Brendan Gallagher.

Or it could take a season with the Laval Rocket to get him to the necessary place to properly begin his NHL career. Having a top-end playmaker would be a welcome addition for the new prospects turning pro, and to a team that struggled on the power play a season ago.

The Harvard Crimson’s Bridget T Sands joins the podcast to talk about Sean Farrell and his development in college hockey.

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