The Montreal Canadiens have a very good young core, and it only becomes even more evident when you compare it to that of other young teams, as highlighted by a Sportsnet ranking.
Sportsnet’s Sonny Sachdeva recently released a ranking of the five teams that have the most promising group of 25-and-under players. It may not be a surprise for Montreal Canadiens fans, but it’s still worth mentioning that the Habs come out on top of those rankings, even if captain Nick Suzuki isn’t considered in the exercise since he’s already 26 and will soon be turning 27.
So, the Sportsnet reporter essentially believes that Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov, Lane Hutson, Kaiden Guhle, Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler are the top 25-and-under core out there, based on their run to the Eastern Conference Final and the fact that they have big young contributors everywhere in the lineup. It’s not all about the attack as the Edmonton Oilers once were; they have impactful forwards, big names on the blueline and not just one, but two good young netminders. He also adds that the likes of Michael Hage and David Reinbacher waiting in the wings make the future look even brighter.
The one element he doesn’t mention, however, is that this young core has the right team culture; they’ve all been willing to leave money on the table to give their team plenty of flexibility on the salary cap to have an impactful supporting cast. That desire to win being stronger than the desire to break the bank is huge for the Canadiens.
The San Jose Sharks land in second place with Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa, Ivar Stenberg, Sam Dickinson, and Yaroslav Askarov. While Celebrini may very well be worth every penny of the five-year deal he signed, it’s still a deal that will lead him straight to UFA status and will make the Sharks’ cap gymnastics that much more complicated.
The Anaheim Ducks, who were forced to give Leo Carlsson a 5-year-deal with an $18 M cap hit thanks to Daniel Briere and the Philadelphia Flyers, land in third place. Cutter Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke join Carlsson up front, while Jackson Lacombe and Pavel Mintyukov complete this young core on the blueline. Lukas Dostal, who’s already 26, is not eligible for this exercise, which explains why the Ducks have no goalie listed.
The Ottawa Senators, despite being abandoned by captain Brady Tkachuk, land in fourth place with Tim Stutzle, William Eklund, Dylan Cozens, Shane Pinto, Ridly Greig, Jake Sanderson and Jordan Spence. It’s worth mentioning that Cozens and Pinto are both 25 already while Stutzle, Sanderson and Spence are all 24.
Finally, the Flyers complete the top-five, but it’s easy to see that they may very well have been higher had it not been for Pat Verbeek’s decision to mark the Carlsson offer sheet. Still, they are no slouch even without him; the Flyers’ young core is made of Trevor Zegras, Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, Tyson Foerster, Jamie Drysdale and Cam York.
In the future, Montreal is likely to remain quite high on that list, even though Caufield and Dobes are already 25 and Guhle is 24; the remaining four players are all 22 or younger, and there are players such as Hage, Reinbacher and Alexander Zharovsky getting ready to join the fold in the coming years.
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