Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has been without its top two centers for much of the last month.
Sam Poulin remains at home with his family in Quebec, where he has been since going on leave for personal reasons on Dec. 7. Drew O'Connor has been in Pittsburgh since Dec. 13.
In looking for a new first-line center, Wilkes-Barre head coach J.D. Forrest turned to an AHL-contracted second-year pro in Sam Houde, a 22-year-old who is in his first full season in the AHL after spending the bulk of his rookie professional season in the ECHL with Wheeling last year.
Houde has more than lived up to expectations, and starting to turn heads after scoring five goals and three assists in the nine games since being promoted to the first-line center. He's looking to be the next one in the line of players who turned AHL contracts into NHL deals while in Wilkes-Barre.
Houde, 6 feet and 170 pounds, is a left-handed shot capable of playing center and both wings. One of his greatest assets is his speed, and he has good hockey IQ and sense when it comes to his playmaking. He tries to model his game after other reliable, two-way centers in Sidney Crosby and Nicklas Backstrom. He also has a grittiness to his game, and doesn't shy away from going to the dirty areas of the ice to make a play.
Houde was originally a fifth-round draft pick of the Canadiens back in 2018, but became a free agent after he was one of several Canadiens prospects from that draft class who went unsigned by the 2020 deadline. Houde went back to the QMJHL's Chicoutimi Saguenéens for an overage fifth season the following year, where he recorded 28 points (9 goals, 19 assists) in 29 games while being good defensively as the team's second-line center.
It was during that season that Houde learned the Penguins were interested in him.
Houde's agent is Eric Meloche, who played in the Penguins' organization from 2000-04 and is the son of Gilles Meloche, who worked for the Penguins as a goaltending coach from 1989-2013 and is now in his 10th season as a special assignment scout in the organization.
"They were already in contact, I think that helped," Houde told me Sunday of that connection. "I was really excited to sign with the Penguins organization. That was one of the teams that I wanted. I was following them a lot because Sidney Crosby was who I was watching growing up. It was kind of funny that I signed here and try to make my way up with them."
Houde made his professional debut in Wheeling last season, where he scored 13 goals and 30 assists in 31 games. He moved throughout the top-six that year and spent time at center and both wings, where he developed a solid comfort level at wing after playing primarily at center during his junior career.
"It was really good for my confidence," Houde said of his time in Wheeling. "I was playing a lot and in some different roles. I was on the first line and trying to bring offense every game, but I had some chances on the PK too. It was good for me to play a lot and get some pro experience."
Houde earned time in Wilkes-Barre that season and played 19 games in a bottom-six role, scoring one goal and five assists. That first taste of AHL action was a valuable learning experience for Houde, who saw how much less time and space he had to make plays at the AHL compared to the ECHL.
KDP PHOTOGRAPHY / WBS PENGUINS
Houde spent the first 17 games of this season moving between center and wing in Wilkes-Barre's lineup, primarily in the bottom-six. He was chipping in offensively occasionally with two goals and three assists, but it was defensive game that the team really prioritized in that role. When the goals weren't coming as frequently early on in the season, the coaching staff made the decision to take Houde off the second power play unit in order to allow him to devote more of his focus to his five-on-five play, where they wanted him to continue to become more predictable and responsible. Once he started to take more strides in that area, he got put back on the second power play unit and started to see the occasional game in the top-six when there was an opening due to an injury or recall.
"We like the element of speed that he brings and his skill," Forrest told me of Houde in November. "He's taken another step this season in that he's a little braver, he'll mix it up. He's not averse to getting into the dirty areas. We like to see that."
When Houde got promoted to first-line center with Poulin and O'Connor out in mid-December, I asked Forrest if he thought there was another level to Houde's offensive game that he could still reach as well.
"I certainly do," Forrest told me. "I think that he put up some pretty good numbers last year in Wheeling, and had a little bit of time here with us. But you can see, he's got that playmaking ability and his speed can put us back on our heels. ... He's getting a little bit more ice time, a little bit different positions, and the confidence grows. From what we think he can contribute more offensively, for sure. We're not asking him to force it, but you can just see it is part of his game. So hopefully he keeps building on what he's already started this season."
Houde definitely kept building. He scored a beautiful goal in his first game centering the top line, wrapping around the net before finishing with a backhand shot:
Houde then went on a career-long three-game goal streak from Dec. 30-Jan. 4, scoring twice in that third game against Charlotte. The goals came in a variety of ways, too, like this rocket of a shot on the power play:
... and this deflection:
... and this breakaway tally made possible by his speed:
With five goals and three assists in his nine games since being moved to the team's top-line center, I asked Houde what has led to this run he's on beyond just the boost in ice time.
"I think I just got more confidence every game," he said. "They gave me an opportunity and I just took it. I don't really think too much right now, I'm just playing my game and it's just going well right now. I'm just trying to keep the same mentality. I'm still trying to bring what I do well on the ice when I'm on the third or fourth line -- defensive, and create some turnovers. But in the top-six you do try to bring more offense, that's why they're putting me there. That's the main thing."
Houde said that the part of his game that he really wants to improve the most to keep having this success is his work in the faceoff circle. The AHL doesn't make faceoff stats publicly available (crazy, I know), so I couldn't tell you what Houde is averaging this season. But he acknowledges that it's a weaker area of his game, and he spends time at Wilkes-Barre's practices focusing on improving. He credits assistant coach Kevin Porter (who was pretty good in the faceoff circle during his own playing days) and veteran forward Tyler Sikura with being great helps to him in that area this season.
With Houde's contract being an AHL deal, he's not technically Pittsburgh property. He doesn't count toward the team's 50-contract limit, and he can't be recalled without first signing an NHL deal. Players have started their professional careers in Wheeling on AHL (or even ECHL) deals before and worked their way up to NHL deals with Pittsburgh, with Carter Rowney and Casey DeSmith being notable examples.
The most recent example of a player who turned an AHL deal with Wilkes-Barre into an NHL deal is Felix Robert, who like Houde is a former QMJHL forward who started his professional career in Wheeling after signing. Robert signed his NHL contract this past summer ... with Tampa. Robert had a pretty strong first pro season in 2020-21, but was still somewhat of a hidden gem and signed another AHL deal with Wilkes-Barre for the following year. The Penguins waited until after that second season to offer Robert an entry-level NHL contract. By then it was so blatantly clear that Robert deserved an NHL contract that he had offers from several teams, and he opted to sign with the Lightning.
I asked Houde if earning an NHL deal of his own is something that's crept into his mind yet.
"Obviously, that's the goal," Houde told me. "I'm not really trying to focus on that right now. If it does happen, it happens. But I just have to keep doing my best and working hard every day."
The Penguins have a prospect pool that's on the shallow side, and being able to boost it by having some of these AHL-contracted prospects pan out would sure help. If Houde keeps trending in his current direction, the Penguins might be wise to lock him up to a deal early, rather than wait and let another prospect slip through their fingers as what happened with Robert.
