It's a good week for the Montreal Canadiens, they've won two games in row, Patrik Laine is back in training with his teammates and yesterday, TSN announced Martin St-Louis' team was first in its ranking of core four players under the age of 24. Are the Canadiens giving too much ice time to Lane Hutson? According to the Canadian sports network, Montreal has a core of young players projected to be as strong or better than any in the league. Interestingly, none of those top four players are Canadiens, we're lightyears away from the days the Habs were called the flying frenchmen thanks to three Franco-Ontarian's (Jack Laviolette, Didier Pitre and Edouard Charles "Newsy" Lalonde) dominance. Cole Caufield comes in as the top player under 24 for the Canadiens. The American sniper is enjoying a very good start to the season and plays a more complete game than he did before. He's no longer just about goal scoring, he's visible everywhere on the ice. TSN than has 18-year-old Russian prospect Ivan Demidov in second place. Although he's not getting much ice time in the KHL, the youngster's talent is evident. In 29 games in the best Russian league, the right winger has put up 20 points. Montreal's third player is former first overall pick at the 2022 draft, Juraj Slafkovsky. The hulking Slovak winger is working hard to become a more complete player and under the tutelage of head coach Martin St-Louis, he looks well on his way to get there. Rounding up the Habs top four is American defenseman Lane Hutson. The offensive blueliner has become a fan favourite in a flash with his speed, mobility and determination. When he touches the puck and starts flying to the offensive zone, the Bell Centre crowd is on the edge of its seat and you can regularly hear "ooohs" and "ahhhs". Coming up just short of the top four is American goaltender Jacob Fowler, who's having a great sophomore season in the NCAA. The soon to be 20 years old goaltender has a 7-1-0 record, a 1.55 goals-against average and a ,943 save percentage. In TSN's exercise, Kaiden Guhle is the 6th and last player to earn either an A or AA grade, meaning the Canadiens' top six players are an entire starting lineup. It's interesting to note that both Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook did not make the cut for the Canadiens. The pair are 23 year-old as well, but have yet to reach their projected ceiling in the organisation. Both players are currently on "show me" deals, Dach has one more season to prove himself after the current one to show he deserves to be part of the team's core and Newhook has got another two years to do the same. Reading TSN's article, the Canadiens future sure sounds bright, but this is based on a projection, time will tell if the sports network hit the bullseye with its ranking. Follow Karine on X @KarineHains [https://x.com/KarineHains] Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/karinehains.bsky.social] and Threads @karinehains [https://www.threads.net/@karinehains] Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/] for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens
