The Montreal Canadiens already have a large number of NHL prospects in the system and that list will get even longer with the NHL entry draft in July. General manager Kent Hughes also added to the wealth of talent in the organization with the trades in involving Tyler Toffoli, Ben Chiarot and Artturi Lehkonen. So how do the prospects rank?
Every prospect list needs a cut-off. For the purposes of this list the player must be born in the year 2000 or later and must not yet be an NHL regular – so Cole Caufield is excluded and so are Cayden Primeau, Jesse Ylönen, Josh Brook and others born in 1999 or earlier.
This ranking is also somewhat different in that it first ranks the prospects by position rather than lumping them together. From there I have picked my top twenty-two. I have also categorized wingers who shoot left as left wingers and wingers who shoot right as right wingers – however some may play off-wing as Joshua Roy has done.
Some players who may have significant upside may rank lower on this list because of limited playing time or unknown level of competition so take these rankings with a grain of salt – they are simply my personal observations.
By early July, this list will look dramatically different. The entry draft could result in four or more players cracking the top twenty-two but this is a good place to begin.
Goaltenders
- Jakub Dobes
- Frederik Dichow
- Joe Vrbetic
Left Defense
- Kaiden Guhle
- Jordan Harris
- Mattias Norlinder
- Jayden Struble
- Arber Xhekaj
- Gianni Fairbrother
- William Trudeau
Right Defense
- Justin Barron
- Logan Mailloux
- Dmitri Kostenko
- Daniel Sobolev
Center
- Riley Kidney
- Jan Mysak
- Oliver Kapanen
- Ty Smilanic
- Xavier Simoneau
Left Wing
- Joshua Roy
- Emil Heineman
- Sean Farrell
- Luke Tuch
- Rhett Pitlick
- Alexander Gordin
Right Wing
- Blake Biondi
Overall Ranking
- Kaiden Guhle
- Justin Barron
- Joshua Roy
- Jordan Harris
- Logan Mailloux
- Riley Kidney
- Mattias Norlinder
- Jayden Struble
- Jakub Dobes
- Arber Xhekaj
- Emil Heineman
- Sean Farrell
- Jan Mysak
- Oliver Kapanen
- Ty Smilanic
- Blake Biondi
- Frederik Dichow
- Dmitri Kostenko
- Xavier Simoneau
- Gianni Fairbrother
- William Trudeau
- Joe Vrbetic
More reading…
I find this to be an interesting ranking. Imagine if a handful of these prospects prove to be stars. It’s just great to think about that in conjunction with those not yet selected, current players who will develop more completely and those who arrive by trade. I am very hopeful.