Canadiens Prospect Rankings: The Departed And Traded

The Montreal Canadiens 2025 Prospect Rankings are underway, but before we get going with the honourable mentions, as well as the in-depth articles for every prospect in the top-20, we’ll examine the important players who are no longer eligible for the project, either due to their age or a change in employers.

Lane Hutson Clause

Last year, we included prospects who were 23 or under, as long as they had played fewer than 100 games in the NHL. This time around, the parameters were set at 75 or fewer games, and if I’m being perfectly honest, Hutson played a significant role in the decision.

Hutson only has 84 games of experience under his belt, but you’d be hard-pressed to suggest he’s a prospect. He’s essentially already established himself as a legitimate top pairing defenceman.

If we kept him in the mix, it would be like allowing a Bugatti Veyron to be included in the local soap box derby.

Was it an arbitrary decision? Absolutely, but I’m not too worried we’ll have to bend the rules any more moving forward. Players who put together historic rookie campaigns are few and far between.

Montreal Canadiens Prospect Trades

Logan Mailloux was ranked 8th last year by the fans, making him the highest-ranking prospect who is no longer with the organization.

If I can be perfectly frank, the trade that saw the Canadiens acquire Zachary Bolduc from the St. Louis Blues was a great decision by Kent Hughes in terms of asset management. He used an area of strength to address a weakness, the ideal scenario for a rebuilding team that has to be a little more selective when it comes to trade targets.

Bolduc checks a lot of boxes for the Canadiens, and the team managed to maintain their youth movement, as both players included in the trade were just 22 years old.

INSTANT ANALYSIS: The Bolduc Trade Is Tidy Business By The Montreal Canadiens

The difference being that Bolduc has established himself as an NHL player, while Mailloux still has a lot of work to be done from a defensive perspective if he’s to carve out a permanent role with the Blues.

That being said, even if Mailloux is still an AHL player at this point in his career, we’d be delving into intellectual dishonesty by suggesting he brought nothing to the table while playing with the Laval Rocket. His shot selection is fantastic, he’s adored by his teammates due to his penchant for defending them whenever necessary, and he represented the Rocket in back-to-back years at the AHL All-Star weekend.

He’s also a right-handed defenceman, which means he automatically carries more value in the NHL.

All things considered, the trade had all the makings of a win-win decision, and it will be many years before we can close the chapter on the trade analysis for this particular deal.

Emil Heineman

It was a tale of two seasons for Emil Heineman, who was ranked 18th by Canadiens fans last season.

Prior to the unfortunate incident that led to being struck by a car while in Utah, the Canadiens had the best fourth line in hockey. Yes, Jake Evans was scoring on every second shot, and Joel Armia did his part, but statistically speaking, Heineman was the driving force behind their success. It’s no coincidence both Armia and Evans stopped producing the moment Heineman was no longer available to play on the fourth line. And it wasn’t just a matter of shooting percentages drying up, the underlying numbers down the stretch were below replacement.

He was used as the sweetener in the Noah Dobson trade, and very few Canadiens fans will lose sleep due to his departure, but there’s no doubt the Islanders acquired a very solid bottom-six player who tends to make something happen every shift, be it a hit, a shot, or a concerted defensive effort.

Justin Barron

Barron was another prospect who excelled in the offensive zone, but would have a hard time picking out his own goalie in a police lineup. And yet, despite his clear defensive woes, Barron was one of the few defencemen in Montreal who established a semiregular goal-scoring rate, part of the reason why Habs fans voted him as the 10th best prospect last year.

He also put together fantastic underlying numbers once he arrived in Nashville, which runs contrary to all the hot takes we saw on social media, which were essentially designed to lure Habs fans into bashing the former Canadiens defenceman after the trade, a lot like they did prior to the trade.

While it was true that Barron’s mistakes were difficult to forget, the factual evidence as to his value was much more nuanced.

Personally, I believe the vitriol sent his way was unreasonable, not to mention contrived. Barron finished second to Roman Josi in a bevy of key statistical categories in Nashville, while leading the entire Predators blue line in expected goals share (xGF%).

In other words, when he was on the ice, the Predators were a much better team.

The Graduates

Arber Xhekaj (9th) and Jayden Struble (12th) are the two main prospects beyond Hutson who are still with the team, but no longer qualify for our Montreal Canadiens prospect rankings.

After their baptism by fire in the NHL, both players had their fair share of peaks and valleys, and they also missed extended stretches while alternating as healthy scratches.

ON TOPIC: Projecting Montreal Canadiens Defensive Pairings Including Dobson

Fortunately, whenever the Habs allowed Xhekaj and Struble to play together on the third pairing the numbers were quite solid, and worth keeping in mind as the team prepares to establish their pairings heading into 2025-26.

All Montreal Canadiens statistics are via Natural Stat Trick.