[Habs Top 25 Under 25, 2023 edition](https://www.habseyesontheprize.com/tag/canadiens-top-25-under-25/)
Players I had a bit higher:
* Farrell (ranked 15th); I guess I overvalued his odds of making it to the NHL
* Mesar (ranked 18th); same
* Heineman (ranked 21st) because of the relatively high certainty and the potential upside in my eyes
* Fowler (ranked 23rd); the draft video posted yesterday conforts me in my choice to rank him higher
* The rest are mostly because I don’t know what I’m doing, and I don’t see them making it to the NHL anyway (Rohrer, Konyushkov, Miller)
Players I had a bit lower (I am ready to ruffle some feathers):
* Joshua Roy (ranked 9th) seems a tiny bit high to me because of the concerns about his skating
* Rafaël Harvey-Pinard (ranked 13th) because his crazy shooting percentage last season should go down, though I was probably too hard on him for nothing as he still brings a lot to the table
* Logan Mailloux (ranked 16th), because of I’m not confident he will improve much defensively, which severely limits his potential in the NHL (I think people pencilling him into a spot in the NHL are making a mistake)
Please note I am the furthest thing from an expert. I’m just curious to read people’s opinions on the U25 players/prospects and where you agree or not with the final ranking made by EOTP.
Happy arguing!
by FakeCrash
13 Comments
I think that most of the player you listed have some big uncertainty that make it hard to come to an agreement on their ranking.
Roy because of his skating, Farrell because of his size, Mesar because of such an below average season, Fowler because he is a goalie, Mailloux because of his weak defensive play.
They all have good potential, but with a big red question mark that affect the opinion of some people more than others. So I think that until they are no longer prospect, they will always have a big variance in their ranking no matter what.
I mostly agree with mailloux, he seems like a good shooting dman but that won’t get you very far if you aren’t elite in some other aspect of the game. He needs to be good defensively and play driving. I think Roy’s skating isn’t that big of an issue guys like gally and Suzuki aren’t great skaters and they can still be effective
Harris and Xhekaj are way too low IMO.
I don’t think you should change your opinion of how likely Farrell and Mesar are to make it to the NHL based on T25U25. It’s a poll. We’ve seen plenty of risers through the years.
I might be crazy but I think RHP should be higher after the season he just had
Maybe it’s an outlier but he blew my expectations out of the water and I think he might be a bit more “Gallagher” than the “Gallagher-lite” nicknames imply.
I think he’s going to be a sparkplug player that can go on any line and succeed while giving us 25 goals a season and if that’s not a top 10 player on this list than idk what is
I’d move him to about 8-10 depending on how much you value the potential of the particular prospects they put in that range
I had Heineman and Harris way too high compared to the list. Love those two guys.
And i had the new prospect goalies all over the place, not knowing them that much.
The rest way pretty spot on with the vibe tho. Once again this year, i love this exercice, it helps us learn about future guys.
I’m less worried about Joshua Roy’s skating abilities than Mesar’s ability to figure out how to play on a small ice.
I had Harvey-Pinard within a top 10 spot.
HP had really stepped up when it was needed last season as half the first team were in the press box rather than on the ice/on the bench.
HP has been compared to a younger Gally when it comes to style of play. If he could play as well as Gally, without the amount and severity of injuries accumulated over the years, then HP would be a top asset.
I got Xhekaj way higher. Not just because of his physicality but I feel his offensive play is almost disregarded because of other aspects of his game.
IMO Hutson > Slaf in terms of potential
An interesting debate to me is #1.
I had CC as #1, don’t get me wrong I love Nick he is an amazing player and more complete but Caufield is the first potentially elite scorer I’ve seen on this team in my lifetime.
To truly compete for a cup I see Suzy as our 2nd line centre and a damn good one at that. Caufield though could put up 40-50 goals and be top ten in league scoring for the next decade. Something we haven’t seen on the habs in a long long time.
They placed Simoneau at #30. I’d rate him above Kidney, who they have at #19, above Ylönen and Heineman. I’d maybe put Heineman 19, Ylonen 20 and Andersson/Simoneau in the same tier.
I’m not a Kidney believer but I’m a Simoneau believer. Simoneau will 100% find his way into an NHL job someday. He’s an energetic buzzsaw with good wheels, good smarts and good hands. He could play many roles on a team. The fact that he produced right off the bat as an AHL rookie gives me hope.
Kidney I fail to see the upside given his toolset. The vision is there, but he lacks the sort of speed and 1v1 proficiency that he’ll need to keep being a playmaker at higher levels. I’m afraid he’ll be stuck as a nothing but a “puck mover”.
Caufield not being 1 is a joke imo
Beyond joke tbh
Heineman. I am high on the kid. He has that scoring touch where he can get goals from out far. Good skater with good awareness. Really excited to watch him more closely this year in NA. Should get a few games this year.