The annual Eyes on the Prize Top 25 under 25 community vote is out: [https://www.habseyesontheprize.com/montreal-canadiens-2023-top-25-under-25-player-rankings-prospects-community-vote-ballot-submission/](https://www.habseyesontheprize.com/montreal-canadiens-2023-top-25-under-25-player-rankings-prospects-community-vote-ballot-submission/)
So I figured I’d share my own personal rank. Tear it apart. Remember these are players aged 25 or under at the start of the next season
\*\*\*DISCLAIMER! I ranked these players based on what I feel their **value** is overall. That includes potential as well as performance at a professional level. So that means a player like Hutson is high on this list when he hasn’t played pro hockey. I feel he’s more valuable than some other players who are already at an NHL level for his potential alone.
1. Nick Suzuki
2. Cole Caufield
3. Kaiden Guhle
4. Kirby Dach
5. Juraj Slafkovsky
6. Lane Hutson
7. David Reinbacher
8. Jordan Harris
9. Alex Newhook
10. Joshua Roy
11. Justin Barron
12. Logan Mailloux
13. Owen Beck
14. Rafael Harvey-Pinard
15. Arber Xhekaj
16. Jesse Ylonen
17. Filip Mesar
18. Cayden Primeau
19. Sean Farrell
20. Adam Engstrom
21. Riley Kidney
22. Emil Heineman
23. Nic Beaudin
24. Oliver Kapanen
25. William Trudeau
Honourable Mentions:
1. Vinzenz Rohrer
2. Lias Andersson
3. Mattias Norlinder
4. Jakub Dobes
5. Jan Mysak
6. Jared Davidson
7. Jayden Struble
8. Xavier Simoneau
9. Jacob Fowler
10. Sam Harris
​
by DFF_Canuck
10 Comments
Hard to do this exercise. I chose to do it as a draft. “Knowing what I know who would I pick first and who would I gamble On. So player like RHP and Xhekaj are high for me.
Why do I always assume RHP is a 76 years old man like Bunting?
Damn this was hard to rank them all. Deep.
Top ten was
1 Cole
2 Dach
3 Suzuki
4 Slaf
5 David…
6 Hutson
7 Guhle
8 Newhook
9 Engstrom
10 Harris
Harris to high imo.
Engstrom will prove to be too low also
Good list overall IMO; I had the following players significantly lower:
Roy – Lots of potential but still a question mark for me. A guy like Beck has a much higher floor.
Mailloux – Don’t see him making it in the NHL at all.
Primeau – I don’t really see a future for him in Montreal… at this point, I think Fowler and even Dobeš have more value than him.
I used DobberProspects a lot to help me rank players but a lot of the rankings there are from one, sometimes even two years ago, so I’m not sure if it was the best resource…
Mailloux above Barron and Roy imo
1. Suzuki
2. Caufield
3. Dach
4. Slafkovksy
5. Reinbacher
6. Guhle
7. Newhook
8. Hutson
9. Barron
10. Pinard
11. Roy
12. Harris
13. Xhekaj
14. Beck
15. Mailloux
16. Heineman
17. Farrell
18. Mesar
19. Ylonen
20. Engstrom
1)Caufield
2)Slaf
3)Reinbacher
4)Guhle
I think those have the most value, not that they are the best but in terms of value they hold the most in my view
I’m super interested to see the final results for this year, some major up and downs to come I think.
I would bet on Engstrom, Hutson, Heineman, RHP, Xhekaj to jump up and Mysak, Norlinder and other older prospects to drop.
I feel Heineman is grossly underrated. At the training camp last, he was one of our best forward. Then he got hurt and didn’t play for a while. When he came back, he was right away the best player in Laval (without playing all season long). He is big and skates so fast. I am very high on him, I feel he is going to become a good NHLer.