Montreal Canadiens: Farm system ranked a lot higher than the year before

The Montreal Canadiens have added a lot more skill to their prospect pool and have fallen within the top ten of Corey Pronman’s rankings.

There’s true value in having a second opinion. The Montreal Canadiens walked away with 11 new players after the 2018 NHL Draft, and it was safe to say that the system was improved. Jesperi Kotkaniemi is at the top of the list on that front, but others such as Jesse Ylönen and Alexander Romanov bring a lot more speed and offensive flair to an organization that didn’t have too much of it.

Looking at all the Habs have now, it’s safe to say that they’re in a much better spot than they were a year ago. What’s made it better is that supporters of the team aren’t the only ones who share the same sentiment.

Corey Pronman of The Athletic has been putting out his NHL farm rankings for the last few weeks. His rankings look at players 23 and under placing them into specific categories based on the likelihood of them making the NHL. Last year’s rankings had the Montreal Canadiens at 23, but this year, they’ve jumped into the top ten at number 6 (subscription required).

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According to Pronman, Kotkaniemi is the only prospect in the Habs system with elite potential in the NHL. He even has him ahead of Jonathan Drouin in the organizational top ten. Ryan Poehling and Jesse Ylönen were in the category just below that (very good NHL prospects).

It’s well worth a read as a lot of emphasis was placed on speed, skating, and vision which a lot of the Habs up-and-comers have. Kotkaniemi has put a decent amount of that on display at the U20s and Ässät. It’s qualities like those that make strong players in the future as they can make others around them better.

Another year of wise drafting could further strengthen the prospect pool the Montreal Canadiens have been working on in the last two years.

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Morning Links

Analyzing Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s skating ability (HEOTP)

Some scouts knocked his skating, but how accurate was that analysis ahead of the draft?

Catching up with… Karl Alzner (NHL)

Karl Alzner talks about this first season with the Montreal Canadiens and what he’s done to prepare for the upcoming year.

Why Jesperi Kotkaniemi Should Stay In Finland In 2018-19 (HW)

Although Kotkaniemi will most likely get a few set of games at the start of the season, returning to play with Ässät may be the better option for his development.