Introduction
It’s time to begin Eyes On The Prize’s 17th annual Montreal Canadiens Top 25 Under 25!
The series focuses on the top young talent in the organization, projecting their skills to identify who will compete (or not) for places on the NHL roster in the future, slotting them in among those who are already stars with the Canadiens. Any player born after September 15, 2001, taking us back as far as the 2020 NHL Draft class, was eligible for inclusion.
The pool totals 55 players, tying last year’s record for the most ever. That is a surprise considering that Montreal is now in a position to move out future assets for more immediate help, but the lack of a trade at the draft like the Canadiens have completed in the first years of Kent Hughes’s tenure, and the addition of some relatively young support players in the AHL keep the total the same in 2026. We go into this project with trade rumours surrounding Montreal, so things could change at any moment.
Eligible players
The players considered for this year’s ranking, sorted from oldest to youngest, were:
| Player | DOB | Age | Pos | Eligible for 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaiden Guhle | 2002-01-18 | 24.5 | LD | No |
| Jack Smith | 2002-07-06 | 24.1 | C | No |
| Jared Davidson | 2002-07-07 | 24.1 | C | No |
| Hunter McKown | 2002-08-18 | 23.9 | RW | No |
| Maksymilian Szuber | 2002-08-25 | 23.9 | LD | No |
| Brett Berard | 2002-09-09 | 23.9 | LW | No |
| Dmitri Kostenko | 2002-09-25 | 23.8 | RD | Yes |
| Bogdan Konyushkov | 2002-12-20 | 23.6 | RD | Yes |
| Luke Mittelstadt | 2003-01-22 | 23.5 | LD | Yes |
| Zachary Bolduc | 2003-02-24 | 23.4 | LW | Yes |
| Daniil Sobolev | 2003-03-03 | 23.4 | RD | Yes |
| Sasha Pastujov* | 2003-07-15 | 23.0 | LW | Yes |
| Oliver Kapanen | 2003-07-29 | 23.0 | C | Yes |
| Ethan Samson | 2003-08-23 | 22.9 | RD | Yes |
| Sam Harris | 2003-10-14 | 22.8 | LW | Yes |
| Adam Engström | 2003-11-17 | 22.7 | LD | Yes |
| Emmett Croteau | 2003-12-07 | 22.6 | G | Yes |
| Filip Mesar | 2004-01-03 | 22.6 | RW | Yes |
| Owen Beck | 2004-02-03 | 22.5 | C | Yes |
| Lane Hutson | 2004-02-14 | 22.4 | LD | Yes |
| Juraj Slafkovský | 2004-03-20 | 22.4 | RW | Yes |
| Florian Xhekaj | 2004-06-27 | 22.1 | LW | Yes |
| Vinzenz Rohrer | 2004-09-09 | 21.9 | C | Yes |
| David Reinbacher | 2004-10-25 | 21.8 | RD | Yes |
| Filip Eriksson | 2004-11-05 | 21.7 | C | Yes |
| Jacob Fowler | 2004-11-24 | 21.7 | G | Yes |
| Quentin Miller | 2004-12-23 | 21.6 | G | Yes |
| Makar Khanin | 2005-03-17 | 21.4 | RW | Yes |
| Yevgeni Volokhin | 2005-04-06 | 21.3 | G | Yes |
| Rasmus Bergqvist | 2005-06-05 | 21.1 | LD | Yes |
| Tyler Thorpe | 2005-08-11 | 21.0 | RW | Yes |
| Ben Merrill | 2005-11-04 | 20.7 | C | Yes |
| Maxon Vig | 2005-11-17 | 20.7 | LD | Yes |
| Ivan Demidov | 2005-12-10 | 20.6 | RW | Yes |
| Alexis Cournoyer | 2005-12-13 | 20.6 | G | Yes |
| Cooper Cleaves | 2006-01-05 | 20.6 | RD | Yes |
| Mikus Vecvanags | 2006-01-17 | 20.5 | G | Yes |
| Owen Protz | 2006-02-07 | 20.5 | LD | Yes |
| Bryce Pickford | 2006-04-02 | 20.3 | RD | Yes |
| Michael Hage | 2006-04-14 | 20.3 | C | Yes |
| Logan Sawyer | 2006-05-06 | 20.2 | LW | Yes |
| Aatos Koivu | 2006-06-22 | 20.1 | C | Yes |
| Tyler Deakos | 2007-01-30 | 19.5 | RW | Yes |
| Hayden Paupanekis | 2007-02-04 | 19.5 | C | Yes |
| Alexander Zharovsky | 2007-02-22 | 19.4 | RW | Yes |
| L.J. Mooney | 2007-03-08 | 19.4 | RW | Yes |
| Carlos Händel | 2007-03-31 | 19.3 | RD | Yes |
| Timofei Runtso | 2007-07-06 | 19.1 | RD | Yes |
| Andrew MacNiel | 2007-07-25 | 19.0 | RD | Yes |
| Arseni Radkov | 2007-08-05 | 19.0 | G | Yes |
| Brayden Klimpke | 2007-10-08 | 18.8 | LD | Yes |
| Wesley Royston | 2007-11-22 | 18.7 | RW | Yes |
| Parker Trottier | 2008-02-13 | 18.5 | LW | Yes |
| Jean-Samuel Daigneault | 2008-02-15 | 18.4 | LD | Yes |
| Gleb Pugachyov | 2008-03-25 | 18.3 | RW | Yes |
* Sasha Pastujov was acquired on July 27 in a trade that sent Sean Farrell to the Anaheim Ducks, after the voting window had closed.
Methodology
To determine the order, EOTP staff members were offered individual ballots, and two members were chosen from among our commenters, with past participants and those with poor moderation histories passed over to find our selections. Joining six of our contributors on the voting panel are Huojian and Packeryammy, whose ballots carried just as much weight in determining the order.
A final vote came from the hundreds of members who submitted a ballot. We received 333 responses this time around between staff and readers, so thank you to everyone who took the time to evaluate players and participate in the project.
The eight individual panellist ballots were removed from the sample used for the EOTP vote. From those that remained, any ballots that had fewer than 25 players ranked were removed, and any ranks on the remaining ballots that went beyond the number a person said they had ranked (e.g. ranks 36-55 for someone who answered “35” for the length of their list) were disregarded.
The result was 143 partial lists and another 174 that ranked all 55 players for a total of 317 ballots making up the EOTP submission. Ranks for each player were averaged across all ballots that had the player in question ranked, and those averages were sorted from lowest to highest to make the community vote.
The same procedure of averaging the results was ultimately used to determine the 2026 order from the nine total ballots included. In Pastujov’s case, the six staff members and two community additions slotted him into their lists, and those eight ballots were averaged to determine his ranking.
What’s next?
If you didn’t save your list and would like to follow along as the players are revealed, make a request in the comments of this article, and it will be sent to the email address associated with your EOTP profile.
Before we begin counting down the players in this year’s series, we’ll take a look at how the pool changed from last year to this, while revisiting the histories of players who are no longer eligible for the project.
Writing opportunities
The annual ranking is just part of our coverage of the young players in the Canadiens organization. When the season begins we also follow the progress of the Junior and minor-league prospects. To that end, Eyes On The Prize is looking to bring two writers onto the staff, a prospect writer to follow players in the North American Junior leagues and NCAA, and an AHL writer to support in our coverage of the Laval Rocket.
We use a percentage-based compensation system at EOTP. The prospect writer will claim 7.5% of the monthly net income of the site, while the AHL writer will earn 5.0%. Each role will come with a subscription to FloHockey, an online streaming service that houses all AHL games and many of those for the CHL and NCAA leagues and conferences. The prospect writer will put together a biweekly summary of the performances of their charges, while the AHL writer will contribute a report on one or two Rocket games per week.
If you are interested in one of these positions, please send an email to habseyesontheprize@gmail.com with the role you’re applying for, ideally with a writing sample. We look forward to reading your submissions, and welcoming new writers to our staff for the start of the new hockey season.
