It’s back, folks! The most popular series on Eyes on the Prize has returned for yet another installment, the first ever mid-term version, as we check who’s performing this season.
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During the summer we have a profile for each and every player in the top 25, but during the season this isn’t really possible unless we want to stretch this out over a couple of months, as we’re busy with game coverage and breaking news, so we’ll be doing this edition in groups of five players. This will also allow us to complete the series before the Olympic break, during which we’ll be providing you with a ton of coverage.
For this edition of the Top 25 Under 25, we had 10 voters from the EOTP staff; Bruce Peter, Stephan Cooper, Arik Parnass, Robert Rice, Matt Drake, Mike Obrand, Marc Dumont, Scott Matla, Ian Murray, and myself.
The list of players considered was 42 long, so let’s get to it.
| Player | Age | Position | Current league | 2013 rank |
| Sven Andrighetto | 20 | RW | AHL | 26 |
| Nathan Beaulieu | 21 | D | AHL | 6 |
| Mac Bennett | 22 | D | NCAA | 24 |
| Michael Bournival | 21 | C/LW | NHL | 12 |
| Tim Bozon | 19 | LW | WHL | 11 |
| Sebastian Collberg | 19 | RW | SHL | 8 |
| Mike Condon | 23 | G | ECHL | 41 |
| Connor Crisp | 19 | C | OHL | 38 |
| Jacob de la Rose | 18 | C/LW | SHL | 17 |
| Peter Delmas | 23 | G | ECHL | 43 |
| Josiah Didier | 20 | D | NCAA | 31 |
| Darren Dietz | 20 | D | AHL | 18 |
| Gabriel Dumont | 23 | C/RW | AHL | 20 |
| Lars Eller | 24 | C | NHL | 4 |
| Morgan Ellis | 21 | D | AHL | 16 |
| Stefan Fournier | 21 | RW | AHL | 37 |
| Zachary Fucale | 18 | G | QMJHL | 22 |
| Alex Galchenyuk | 19 | C/LW | NHL | 2 |
| Brendan Gallagher | 21 | RW | NHL | 5 |
| Jeremy Gregoire | 18 | C | QMJHL | 36 |
| Patrick Holland | 22 | RW | AHL | 25 |
| Charles Hudon | 19 | C/LW | QMJHL | 10 |
| Louis Leblanc | 22 | C/RW | AHL | 9 |
| Artturi Lehkonen | 18 | LW | SML | 13 |
| Mark MacMillan | 21 | C/RW | NCAA | 30 |
| Robert Mayer | 24 | G | AHL | 35 |
| Michael McCarron | 18 | RW | OHL | 14 |
| Joonas Nattinen | 23 | C | AHL | 28 |
| Jack Nevins | 20 | LW | QMJHL | NEW |
| Magnus Nygren | 23 | D | SHL | 15 |
| Erik Nystrom | 20 | LW | KHL | 34 |
| Greg Pateryn | 23 | D | AHL | 21 |
| Steven Quailer | 24 | LW | AHL | 32 |
| Martin Reway | 18 | LW | QMJHL | 33 |
| P.K. Subban | 24 | D | NHL | 1 |
| Colin Sullivan | 20 | D | NCAA | 40 |
| Christian Thomas | 21 | RW | AHL | 19 |
| Dalton Thrower | 20 | D | WHL | 23 |
| Jarred Tinordi | 21 | D | AHL | 7 |
| Dustin Tokarski | 24 | G | AHL | 29 |
| Maxim Trunev | 23 | RW | KHL | 39 |
| Brady Vail | 19 | C | OHL | 27 |
The method by which we rank players is to ask ourselves this question: Would you trade any player straight-up for any other one? Who is more valuable going forward to the Canadiens? If choosing between Dalton Thrower and Christian Thomas, who would you rather have from a pure talent perspective?
This will be the last time we ever rank P.K. Subban and Lars Eller, so in a way it’s a special goodbye to those players, who have been a part of this ever since our very first edition, which took place during the summer of the Halak trade in 2010.
Later today we’ll go over the graduates and the departed from the summer’s list, but for now I’d like to ask you to give us your lists. What’s your Habs Top 25 Under 25?
