Major Publication: the Future of the Canadiens Looks Very Promising

The management had announced that the goal was the progression of the young players and not the playoffs, to the great dismay of many fans.

Recently, Corey Pronman of The Athletic ranked the quality of the Montreal Canadiens' prospect pool at 6th in the NHL. Let's take a look at the list of CH prospects and their progress.

Pronman's list of top 10 prospects included players already with the main club. Here is the list of the top 10 prospects/young veterans:

1. Cole Caufield
2. Juraj Slafkovsky
3. David Reinbacher
4. Kirby Dach
5. Kaiden Guhle
6. Alex Newhook
7. Justin Barron
8. Lane Hutson
9. Owen Beck
10. Joshua Roy

How do you assess the progress of the players who represent the future of the club?

Most of them are progressing very well. Roy's performances with the Rocket are exceptional, Hutson continues to dominate in the NCAA, Slafkovsky seems to be coming out of his shell in recent games, and Guhle is establishing himself as a defensive general for Montreal.

Caufield is in a slump to find the back of the net, but he is an important cog in the team's success. Newhook and Barron are slow to establish themselves despite some nice flashes, and Beck and Reinbacher continue their progression in the minor ranks.

At the beginning of November, journalist Marc Dumont, on behalf of MTLHockeyNow, asked fans to establish a list of CH prospects. Additionally, Dumont created a power ranking based on their performance. Before consulting the results, it is important to remember that this ranking concerns prospects aged 23 and under, who are not currently playing in the NHL.

The first number is the current ranking of the player according to Dumont and the number in parentheses is the starting ranking voted by the fans. Here are the results of his analysis:

1. Lane Hutson (1)
2. Joshua Roy (2)
3. Filip Mesar (9)
4. Jacob Fowler (10)
5. Logan Mailloux (4)
6. Owen Beck (5)
7. David Reinbacher (3)
8. Sean Farrell (7)
9. Adam Engstrom (8)
10. Cedric Guindon (N/A)

We are approaching a quarter of the season and the Canadiens are moving further away from a spring dance participation for another year.

The hope of seeing our favorites make the playoffs is slim, but that wasn't the goal anyway.

Let's not forget that there is still a very enticing reward at the end of the campaign, if the Canadiens finish at the bottom of the standings, namely the addition of another very promising prospect for the franchise.

Sources: The Athletic - Corey Pronman
MTLHockeyNow
MTLHockeyNow - Power ranking - Marc Dumont