The Montreal Canadiens have one of the best prospect groups in the NHL thanks to a couple of great drafts recently. Here is a look at their top 10 prospects.
The Montreal Canadiens boast the best group of prospects in the National Hockey League. They have done a tremendous job drafting in the past few years and that has them set up to be a great team in the near future.
Not only have the Canadiens built a stable group of prospects, they have targeted positions of need over the past two drafts as well. They have filled up the pipeline with centers and left defensemen, clearly the two biggest holes on the current roster. Center has been a huge void for close to two decades, but has become far more balanced lately and will soon be a huge strength for the team.
It was not long ago that Canadiens fans were counting on Nikita Scherbak, Michael McCarron, Sebastian Collberg, Tim Bozon, Martin Reway and Zach Fucale to carry the team into the future.
That plan didn’t exactly work out for the Canadiens. The same management team has made a shift in philosophy over the past few drafts and have clearly identified a number of excellent prospects. There are great centers, wingers, defensemen and goaltenders which is what makes this group of prospects the best in the league.
Trying to narrow down this list of prospects to a top ten was difficult. The criteria for a prospect is basically anyone who is 23 or under and has not yet taken on a full-time NHL role yet. That means Jesperi Kotkaniemi is not going to be on this list, although if he were still considered a prospect he would rank first overall for sure.
Noah Juulsen also doesn’t count as a prospect to me anymore. Sure, he missed a lot of time last season so he isn’t guaranteed a roster spot to start the season. However, he showed that he is worthy of an NHL job and even if he doesn’t start the season with the Habs, it won’t be long before he is called back up to take his position back.
So, let’s take a look at the top ten prospects in the Montreal Canadiens system.