Each summer since 2010, Eyes On The Prize has been profiling the top young players in the Montreal Canadiens organization, ranking them in our Top 25 Under 25. This year, as the Canadiens come out of the asset accumulation phase of the rebuild that the organization has undergone since the appearance in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, we reach a record of 55 eligible players.
This year, the voting begins with reports that Kent Hughes is still hoping to add a top-six forward to the roster for the 2025-26 season, even after making a trade to acquire Zachary Bolduc on the opening day of free agency. It’s possible that there will be changes to the list of players included in this project between now and when training camp begins.
The reason for the increase this year is that Montreal used most of its draft picks this summer after trading both first-rounders to add Noah Dobson, rather than trade into next year’s draft. There was little appetite from teams to part with selections for the 2026 class, so the Canadiens opted for over-age players and prospects to fill holes in the organizational depth in the later rounds.
As ever, we determine eligibility based on the same cutoff date used for the NHL draft, so every player on the list was born after September 15, 2000. The players are separated below by position and sorted in descending order by age.
Eligible players
Forwards (30)
| Player | DOB | Age | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cole Caufield | 2001-01-02 | 24.6 | LW |
| Kirby Dach | 2001-01-21 | 24.5 | C |
| Alex Newhook | 2001-01-28 | 24.5 | C |
| Alexander Gordin | 2001-07-31 | 24.0 | RW |
| Sean Farrell | 2001-11-02 | 23.7 | LW |
| Ty Smilanic | 2002-01-20 | 23.5 | LW |
| Luke Tuch | 2002-03-07 | 23.4 | LW |
| Jack Smith | 2002-07-06 | 23.1 | C |
| Jared Davidson | 2002-07-07 | 23.0 | C |
| Zachary Bolduc | 2003-02-24 | 22.4 | LW |
| Riley Kidney | 2003-03-25 | 22.3 | C |
| Oliver Kapanen | 2003-07-29 | 22.0 | C |
| Joshua Roy | 2003-08-06 | 22.0 | RW |
| Sam Harris | 2003-10-14 | 21.8 | LW |
| Filip Mesar | 2004-01-03 | 21.6 | RW |
| Owen Beck | 2004-02-03 | 21.5 | C |
| Juraj Slafkovský | 2004-03-20 | 21.3 | RW |
| Florian Xhekaj | 2004-06-27 | 21.1 | LW |
| Vinzenz Rohrer | 2004-09-09 | 20.9 | C |
| Filip Eriksson | 2004-11-05 | 20.7 | C |
| Makar Khanin | 2005-03-17 | 20.4 | RW |
| Tyler Thorpe | 2005-08-11 | 20.0 | RW |
| Ben Merrill | 2005-11-04 | 19.7 | C |
| Ivan Demidov | 2005-12-10 | 19.6 | RW |
| Michael Hage | 2006-04-14 | 19.3 | C |
| Logan Sawyer | 2006-05-06 | 19.2 | LW |
| Aatos Koivu | 2006-06-22 | 19.1 | C |
| Hayden Paupanekis | 2007-02-04 | 18.5 | C |
| Alexander Zharovsky | 2007-02-22 | 18.4 | RW |
| L.J. Mooney | 2007-03-08 | 18.4 | RW |
Defencemen (17)
| Player | DOB | Age | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arber Xhekaj | 2001-01-30 | 24.5 | LD |
| Jayden Struble | 2001-09-08 | 23.9 | LD |
| Kaiden Guhle | 2002-01-18 | 23.5 | LD |
| Dmitri Kostenko | 2002-09-25 | 22.8 | RD |
| William Trudeau | 2002-10-11 | 22.8 | LD |
| Bogdan Konyushkov | 2002-12-20 | 22.6 | RD |
| Luke Mittelstadt | 2003-01-22 | 22.5 | LD |
| Daniil Sobolev | 2003-03-03 | 22.4 | RD |
| Adam Engström | 2003-11-17 | 21.7 | LD |
| Lane Hutson | 2004-02-14 | 21.4 | LD |
| David Reinbacher | 2004-10-25 | 20.7 | RD |
| Rasmus Bergqvist | 2005-06-05 | 20.1 | LD |
| Maxon Vig | 2005-11-17 | 19.7 | LD |
| Owen Protz | 2006-02-07 | 19.5 | LD |
| Bryce Pickford | 2006-04-02 | 19.3 | RD |
| Carlos Händel | 2007-03-31 | 18.3 | RD |
| Andrew MacNiel | 2007-07-25 | 18.0 | RD |
Goaltenders (8)
| Player | DOB | Age | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jakub Dobes | 2001-05-27 | 24.2 | G |
| Emmett Croteau | 2003-12-07 | 21.6 | G |
| Jacob Fowler | 2004-11-24 | 20.7 | G |
| Quentin Miller | 2004-12-23 | 20.6 | G |
| Yevgeni Volokhin | 2005-04-06 | 20.3 | G |
| Alexis Cournoyer | 2005-12-13 | 19.6 | G |
| Mikus Vecvanags | 2006-01-17 | 19.5 | G |
| Arseni Radkov | 2007-08-05 | 18.0 | G |
Guidelines
With a spectrum ranging from newly drafted teenagers to players who have seen multiple years of action in the NHL, some guidelines for the project are needed. The best way to approach the ranking is to consider the projected value of the players.
Many people preferred the “would you trade Player A for Player B?” method of weighing the options in the past. One issue with this particular method is that you may end up placing more importance on current NHL players than top-end prospects.
The goal of the project is to rank players according to their projected impact at the NHL level. This does not necessarily mean with the Montreal Canadiens, and not necessarily for this upcoming season. Assume every player has an open shot at claiming the place in a lineup that their skill set suggests.
On the flip side, a player already producing in a third-line role in the NHL is likely more valuable than a longer-term prospect who has a small chance of becoming a top-six player. Your decision in those situations will depend on how confident you are that a prospect will reach his projected ceiling.
With that in mind, instead of asking which player you would rather trade, ask which player you’d rather lose. If you would be more upset at the organization parting with a certain prospect than a particular established NHL player, the prospect should be higher on your list. The player at the bottom of your ballot should be the one the organization (and you) would miss the least if he left. The player at the top will be the one you’d happily rebuild your franchise around from scratch, whether that’s a current top-six NHL forward, a minor-league goaltender, or a teenage defenceman.
Any obvious troll ballots (e.g. placing a current NHL player at #55) will be disqualified. The hundreds of community votes we receive will be averaged together to serve as one of our panel entries — a wisdom-of-the-crowd ranking — that we incorporate in the final results.
Two active EOTP community members will be granted individual ballots. Candidates will be limited to those with no violations of our community guidelines on their account in the past year, and who hadn’t had an individual vote in the series in the past four years. The two representatives will be contacted for the chance to have their ballots receive equal weight to those of staff members in determining the rankings.
Should you decide to do some research for your ballot, you can read up on Hadi Kalakeche’s Catching The Torch and Across The Border series, Patrik Bexell’s European Prospect Report, and our comprehensive coverage of the 2025 NHL Entry Draft. I ask that you refrain from discussing the specific or relative order of the players in the comments of this article as to not influence other members’ decisions.
Ballot
The survey you are asked to fill out has four questions.
The first one asks for your EOTP username so we can validate ballots and find the ones from our panellists (all participating staff members will be filling out this same ballot during the same window as well).
The second is a randomized drag-and-drop list of the 55 players. Move the players around, or click/tap a name to put him in the next spot on your ballot, until you’re happy with your order, from the best at the top to the worst at the bottom. Important note: With the new survey platform, all players will need to have rankings for you to submit your list. Once you have your list of the length you’re comfortable with, click/tap the remaining players in any order to assign them a number.
The third question asks how many players you ranked. You must have ranked at least the top 25 players for your ballot to count in the average. Ranking all 55 would be ideal, and the more the better, but just rank as many as you’re comfortable with and let us know how long your list was so we don’t factor in the ranks for the players you skipped. Any ranking above what you claim in this answer will be removed in the calculations, so the results won’t be impacted by arbitrarily finishing the list.
The final question asks if you would like to be considered for one of the two individual spots on the panel. Your ballot will still be included in the averaged community ranking if you select “no” as long as you have at least 25 players ranked.
There is no option to edit a ballot after it has been submitted, but your progress will be saved so you can revisit an unsubmitted ballot later, as long as you use the same browser on the same device. Please take your time to consider each player. It’s also a good idea to keep a record of your list for reference throughout the series as the reveal takes place.
Balloting will close and the results will be collected at 11:59 PM EDT on Thursday, July 31, with preliminary articles beginning the following Monday.
Your can open the ballot to fill it out in its own tab here.
