Plenty of Montreal Canadiens On NHL Scout's Top Prospects List

The Montreal Canadiens have loaded up on prospects and especially draft picks in recent years as they work their way through a rebuild.

They are starting to look like a bottom five team in the NHL for the third consecutive season and will have yet another top draft pick. However, the cupboards are starting to fill up with prospects and better days are ahead.

This notion was supported by a recent ranking of the top prospects who have already been drafted by an NHL team. Craig Button of TSN, and a former NHL general manager, put together a top 50 list of NHL affilliated players and the Canadiens were well represented on the list.

With 32 teams in the league, and only 50 players on the list, you would expect each team to have one player ranked and then about half the teams to have a second player on the list.

The Montreal Canadiens have four.

Lane Hutson is the highest ranked Canadiens player and he comes in at number 16 on the list. He was also given an "A" grade which signals Button believes he will be a top pairing defenseman at the NHL level one day. With 12 goals and 37 points in 28 games for Boston University in his second college season, Hutson looks like a future power play quarterback who will put up a lot of points with the Canadiens.

Joshua Roy is the next Canadiens player on the list and he is ranked 30th. He has moved up to the NHL level recently, and has demonstrated a strong two-way presence on the ice in his first taste of NHL action. He scored 32 points in 40 games for the Laval Rocket this season as a rookie pro and has five points in 12 NHL games so far.

David Reinbacher, the Canadiens fifth overall pick from last year's NHL Draft comes in at number 33. He has been playing on a terrible Kloten team in Switzerland and can't arrive in North America fast enough. He still appears to be a really good defensive defenseman but his development will benefit from being closer to Montreal.

Logan Mailloux rounds out the list of Canadiens. He is ranked 38th as he is in the midst of a terrific rookie season in the AHL. Mailloux has 11 goals and 34 points in 49 games played and was an All Star in his first taste of pro hockey.

So, not only are there four Canadiens in on the top 50 list, all four of them are among the top 38 prospects according to Button. The future is bright, we just have to wait a little longer for them all to arrive.