MONTREAL — When Brendan Gallagher was picked in the ninth round of the Western Hockey League's bantam draft in 2007, he stood about 5-foot-3.

He was probably the smallest player in the draft of 14-year-olds turning 15, said his father, Ian Gallagher.

Gallagher's smaller stature has sparked doubts about his game along the way, but it hasn't held him back. Far from it.

Now a 5-foot-9, 178-pound sparkplug on the ice, the 20-year-old Gallagher is making a splash in his rookie season with the Canadiens, winning over fans with his tenacious, drive-to-the-net play. The Canadiens' fifth-round draft pick in 2010, he has six goals and seven assists in 19 games and is plus-10, tied with Brandon Prust for the team lead in plus/minus.

Former coaches from minor hockey paint a picture of a fearless kid who worked hard — on and off the ice — and competed that way.

"The thing with Brendan, he's played the same way at every level," said Don Hay, coach of the Vancouver Giants, the major-junior team that Gallagher played with for four years.

"When he was a peewee, he played the same way and then people would say: 'Well, he can't do that in bantam,' and then 'he won't be able to do that in midget,' and then 'I don't think he can do that in juniors and then 'can he do it in the NHL?' " Hay said.

"He's just proved people wrong all the time."

Hay has seen a few of the Canadiens' games on television this season and said Gallagher is playing the same way.

"He just plays hard and he competes and he's always around the net," Hay said.

Gallagher holds the Giants' records for most regular-season career goals and points. He was also a prolific goal scorer in bantam and midget, notching most of them around the net, said Matt Erhart, who coached him for three years at those levels.

"We always said 'smallest player, but biggest heart,' " said Erhart, now the general manager and coach of the Surrey Eagles in the British Columbia Hockey League.

"If there was a scramble or a pileup in front of the net, he was usually involved somehow on the bottom or on top of the goalie or underneath the goalie," Erhart said.

"He's always been that type of player and it's transferred — people always say it won't transfer for him, but he keeps on proving people wrong, that's for sure."

Gallagher's style led to some penalties.

"I think goalie interference is probably the No. 1 penalty when he played," Erhart laughed.

As a smaller player, Erhart said he believed a lot of Gallagher's strength was his speed and tenacity.

"He wasn't afraid to take a puck to the net against a 6-foot defenceman when he was 4-foot-10 and get knocked down," Erhart said. "Next shift he would try it again. He would do the exact same thing."

Former National Hockey League player Ray Ferraro, now a TSN game analyst, once thought Gallagher might be too small to play in the NHL. But by about the time Gallagher was playing his second year of junior, Ferraro said: "To me it was just a foregone conclusion that he was going to make it."

What often gets written is how tough and gritty Gallagher is, Ferraro said.

"But he's got exceptional skill. In a tight spot, he can deliver the puck and deliver it on net as quick as any goal scorer. He's got a knack to score."

Many big scorers in junior have to adjust their game to the pro level, Ferraro said.

"Brendan's game translates to the pro level almost seamlessly. I just didn't know he was this ready."

Gallagher is averaging 12:30 of ice time per game. Ferraro praised Canadiens coach Michel Therrien for doing " a really nice job of kind of insulating his minutes, not asking him to do what he's not capable of."

"It's almost like he could probably handle a couple of more minutes, but Therrien is looking at it from a bigger picture of not wearing him out and not putting him in a spot where he's going to fail," Ferraro added.

Ferraro, whose son Landon plays in the American Hockey League, has run ice sessions in the summer in Vancouver that Gallagher has taken part in.

"Brendan never has a bad day," Ferraro said. "When he's on the ice in our skates, the skates are better because he's so upbeat. He's always upbeat.

"I've yet to see a kid that will outwork Brendan. Anywhere. In the gym. On the ice. There's guys that will do as much as him. Lots of guys. But you won't outwork him."

Ian Gallagher said his son has made a significant commitment each summer to strength training.

"It's something that I think through that preparation he has the confidence and the capability to play against larger bodies. Unless you put that work in, it's simply not doable, the sheer physics of it," said Gallagher, who is the Vancouver Giants' strength and conditioning coach.

The second oldest of four children, Gallagher was born in Edmonton and lived in nearby Sherwood Park. When he was 12, the family moved to Tsawwassen, south of Vancouver.

The family had an outdoor rink and Gallagher joined organized hockey when he was 5. When his father did scouting work, he often had to take his children with him to the games. Despite his preschool age, Brendan would sit quietly beside his father, watching the action.

"I took a different approach rather than to make it as a negative we always sort of promoted the fact that his size was his advantage," the father said. "And there are certain things that a smaller player can do that larger players cannot. He certainly bought into that."

"In a lot of places, when the ice gets smaller it gets more difficult to handle the puck," he explained. "For a smaller player, actually in the corner and around the net there are a lot of areas that they can get in and out of that larger players cannot. It actually is a part of his identity as a player. It's helped him."

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Martin St. Louis, who is 5-foot-8, was a player Gallagher wanted to emulate.

"For him that was the player that was obviously having success with a similar type stature," Gallagher's father said.

Both Hay and Erhart described Gallagher as a durable player who didn't get injured much. He suffered a broken wrist in bantam when he was slashed during a game and didn't want to come off the ice.

For smaller players, Hay said he believes they have to be strong and quick — things that Gallagher worked on throughout his junior career.

Hay isn't surprised that his former protégé is playing for the Habs.

"I didn't know if he would play as a 20-year-old, but I knew eventually one day he would play for the Montreal Canadiens because of how competitive he is," Hay said.

"Those types of players are hard to find and they're hard to keep off your team."

bbranswell@montrealgazette.com

Twitter:  @bbranswell