At the NHL Trade Deadline, the Montreal Canadiens did not make any huge moves to try and help this team this season. One of the reasons for that seemed to be this belief that their window is just opening and they didn't want to jeopardize future seasons.
The future is bright for this franchise, and that view was recently validated by The Athletic's NHL All-Under-25 Team, which included three Canadiens players.
The goal for Scott Wheeler and Corey Pronman was to build the best 23-man roster with players born since 2001. As part of this team, the authors had Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky among the forwards and Lane Hutson on defense.
It is also important to note that they did put together a second team, and that group included another Canadiens player, Ivan Demidov.
Montreal Canadiens young core was one of the main reasons for this season's improvement
The Montreal Canadiens finished the season with a 15 point improvement over last season and one of the big reasons was the development of this young group of players. Cole Caufield broke 50 goals and was the first player for the Canadiens to do it in over 30 seasons.
Lane Hutson followed up his rookie season, where he won the Calder Trophy, by recording 78 points and was tied for the third most in the NHL among defensemen. Meanwhile, Juraj Slafkovsky had his first 30-goal season and improved his career-best in points by 22.
While these three players only made this list, the Canadiens have others like Nick Suzuki and Noah Dobson still in the prime of their career with prospects like David Reinbacher and Michael Hage ready to make an impact in the future. This roster, from top to bottom, is filled with high-upside players who are only going to get better moving forward.
The Canadiens finished third in the Atlantic Division but were only two points back of the Buffalo Sabres. They are a team that put the rest of the division on notice and should factor into the division race for many seasons ahead.
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