Luke Mittelstadt has gone from a low-profile seventh-round pick to one of the loudest stories in the AHL in a hurry.
The Canadiens selected Mittelstadt in 2023, and through his NCAA years at Minnesota, the offense was never the headline. He topped out at 21 points in a season, then settled into a steady but modest run with the Golden Gophers: 21, 20, 18 and 21 points across four years. That made his start with the Laval Rocket all the more eye-catching, because he is already past that mark six games into this season.
Mittelstadt enters the week leading the Rocket - and the entire AHL - with four goals and nine assists in six games. For a player long viewed as a reliable defender who can move the puck, that kind of scoring pace is a real shift in the conversation around him.
There were hints before, just not on this scale. In 2021-22 with the Madison Capitols in the USHL, Mittelstadt posted 19 goals and 36 assists in 60 games and finished with 55 points, the team’s best total.
But once he arrived at Minnesota, the role changed. He joined a blue line that already featured Jackson LaCombe and Brock Faber, both of whom have since become NHL stars, and his offensive chances were never the same.
Even after LaCombe and Faber moved on, Mittelstadt never fully rediscovered that USHL scoring touch in college. What he did bring was consistency, and that steady game carried him into pro hockey.
At the end of last season, he got his first taste of the AHL and handled it well enough, recording a goal and four assists in nine games. This season, though, the production has taken off.
The setup in Laval has helped. Adam Engstrom’s promotion to the Canadiens out of training camp opened the door for Mittelstadt to take the left side on the Rocket’s top defensive pairing, and alongside David Reinbacher he formed a strong first pair.
Mittelstadt handled the offensive side of that partnership, while Reinbacher took on the heavier defensive work. Even with Reinbacher now with the Canadiens, Mittelstadt has kept rolling, putting up six points in the two games since the roster change.
A big part of the damage has come on the power play, where he has three goals and six assists. Head coach Daniel Jacob has trusted him with the freedom to join the attack, and that trust has paid off. Laval is 5-1, has won five straight since dropping its opener, and Mittelstadt has been a major driver of that early success.
It is still early, but the Canadiens may have gotten far more than a depth defenseman in the seventh round. Right now, Mittelstadt looks like a player who has forced the organization to take a second look.
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