Gianni Fairbrother had to play hockey.
And that’s why the defenceman, a three-year veteran of the WHL with the Everett Silvertips, took a step back in his development this week and joined the Nanaimo Clippers, a Junior A team in the BCHL.
Fairbrother, who was selected by the Canadiens in the third round (No. 77 overall) in 2019, missed half of last season after suffering an injury in January. With the WHL not scheduled to begin play until January, he was looking at a full year away from the game.
His decision to play in the BCHL, a league known primarily for preparing players for U.S. colleges, is also important to the Canadiens. They must make a decision on whether to sign him before June 1 and they need to ensure that he’s healthy and assess his progress.
If the Canadiens don’t sign him, he becomes an unrestricted free agent, but that’s not an ideal situation for Fairbrother because teams are hesitant to gamble on an unsigned draft pick.
With most leagues in North America on hold, Fairbrother isn’t the only Canadiens prospect looking for a place to play.
The Canadiens have 11 players who are enrolled in, or committed to, U.S. college programs. The six conferences in the U.S. all hope to play, but at least two players are hedging their bets. Blake Biondi — selected this year in the fourth round, No. 109 overall — is headed to Minnesota-Duluth, but he’s moonlighting with Sioux City in the USHL. Harvard-bound Sean Farrell — selected this year in the fourth round, No. 124 overall — is in the USHL’s Chicago Steel training camp and taking online classes at Harvard.
The USHL is playing exhibitions with a planned Dec. 1 start. Farrell is facing the most uncertainty because the Ivy League schools have suspended all athletics until at least Jan. 15. That’s created problems for the ECAC conference because six of its 12 members are Ivies.
Hockey East is planning to begin play before Christmas and that means Jayden Struble (No. 46 overall, 2019) and Jordan Harris (No. 71 overall, 2018) at Northeastern, and Boston University freshman Luke Tuch (No. 47 overall, 2020) have a place to play.
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The Big 10 conference could start as early as Nov. 13, which means Cole Caufield, the Canadiens’ first-round pick in 2019 (No. 15 overall), will get some ice time before representing the U.S. at the world junior tournament in Edmonton. Play usually begins on Boxing Day, but it will be starting on Christmas Day in a bubble around Rogers Place and there will be three games a day at one site rather than four games at two arenas.
Caufield is going into his second season at the University of Wisconsin, which suspended its football program this week after a dozen people, including coach Paul Chryst tested positive for COVID-19.
The OHL is not expected to play before February and Jan Mysak, a 2020 second-rounder (No. 48 overall) with the Hamilton Bulldogs, has returned to the Czech Republic to play for Litvinov. The OHL reopening is complicated because three of its teams are located in the U.S. and the border is still closed.
Defenceman Kaiden Guhle, the Canadiens’ first-round choice (No. 16 overall) this year, is hoping the WHL opens as planned in January. The WHL has five U.S.-based teams but will get around travel restrictions by limiting play within each of its four divisions, including the U.S. division.
The AHL originally announced an optimistic start date of Dec. 4, but the league announced Wednesday that Feb. 4 is the new target date. The Canadiens have loaned four potential Laval Rocket prospects — Hayden Verbeek (undrafted), Jesse Ylonen (No. 35, 2018), Lukas Vejdemo (No. 87, 2015) and Otto Leskinen (undrafted) — to teams in Europe.
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