Headlined by Lane Hutson, the Montreal Canadiens have compiled a great young core of defensemen in their prospect pool.
Falling to the bottom of the NHL standings has allowed the Canadiens to add a couple of top five picks in the past two years. That gives them a chance to add some elite talent to the prospect pipeline, but the Canadiens were able to do that with later picks recently as well.
With a recent early first round pick, a mid-round pick in the first round, a late first round pick and a late second round pick, the Canadiens have built up an extremely deep crop of prospects on the blue line.
As we have seen in recent years, teams that are successful in the postseason have an impressive and deep group of defensemen to build the team around. The Vegas Golden Knights had Shea Theodore and Alex Pietrangelo who they could lean on for tons of minutes each night, and a solid, enormous supporting cast that limited scoring chances and made life difficult for the opposition.
The emerging top four of the Canadiens could provide everything it takes to win a championship in the next few years and they are all just on the beginning of their journey.
The potential top four of the future are all relatively close in age, and should they develop as planned, they could form a nice blend of size, skill, physicality and speed. One is already in the NHL marinating, and waiting for his future bandmates to join him.
Below are the four defensemen, and a brief explanation about each of them. I will rank them, merely by their NHL readiness, and potential arrival time. One, as mentioned earlier is already playing in the NHL, and the rest played last season in the OHL, NLA and NCAA.