Habs Prospects
Two Montreal Canadiens Prospects Among Top 50 In NHL
The Montreal Canadiens have one of the strongest prospect pools in the NHL.
If there’s one issue with the overall group of players involved, it’s that there seems to be a lack of players with elite potential among the many talented prospects in the organization.
To get a better idea of where some of the Canadiens’ top prospects rank against the prospects hailing from other teams, we can reference Scott Wheeler’s recent top 50 prospects rankings.
Top Habs Prospects
Unsurprisingly, Connor Bedard tops Wheeler’s list. He’s followed by Philadelphia Flyers prospect, Matvei Michkov, a player the Canadiens could have added to their prospect pool during the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.
The first Canadiens player that shows up on the list is defenceman David Reinbacher, who is ranked 20th overall.
The smooth-skating defenceman has all the tools necessary to become an impact player in the NHL, and according to Wheeler, his play with Kloten EHC in the Swiss League was impressive enough to put Reinbacher in the top 20.
Lane Hutson is the only other Canadiens prospect who made his way into the top 50. The high-flying defenceman is ranked 27th overall. Wheeler is one of the few scouts who had Hutson ranked much higher than his eventual draft position, 62nd overall.
“There aren’t many players who play like Hutson in hockey,” explained Wheeler.
Lane Hutson is going to be a problem. Short King SZN pic.twitter.com/Aw2h9oiMrB
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) May 17, 2023
Honourable Mentions
Several Habs prospects did make their way into the honourable mentions list, including Owen Beck, Sean Farrell, Filip Mesar, and Joshua Roy.
For the record, Juraj Slafkovsky is not listed, but he does qualify as a “full-time NHLer” under Wheeler’s criteria, therefore he was not included among the list of considered prospects.
As for the goaltenders, no Montreal Canadiens prospect was listed among the top 20 netminders, but both Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler were referenced in the honourable mentions section.
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Well, considering there are 32 teams in the league, that means most teams should have two top prospects in that top 50. So the Habs having 2 is par for the course. It stinks none are on offense, but that may never matter. Tons of 2nd rd picks or lower make it in the NHL, many of whom become top line players or all-stars. Brayden Point.
I think you should consider Hutson as offence-based.
Wheeler’s final rankings weren’t very accurate for top defencemen in the recent draft . His rankings for Reinbacher, Shimachev , Willander , Sandin Pelika , Bonk , Molendyk and Lundstein were 12, 35 , 27 , 16, 41,42 and 58 respectively. They were picked at 5 , 6 11, 17, 22, 24, and 29
Spelling do over , Simashev , Sandin -Pellika and Lindstein