Gleb Pugachyov Falls Out of Scott Weeler’s Top 100 Draft-Eligible Prospects

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Gleb Pugachyov Falls Out of Scott Weeler’s Top 100 Draft-Eligible Prospects
Credit: Capture d'écran/Twitter

In recent years, the Canadiens have often ranked highly in prospect lists. Why? Because the team was in the midst of a rebuild.

But since the rebuild is going so well, the young players who were rising through the prospect rankings are now key players for the team.

Ivan Demidov, Lane Hutson, and Juraj Slafkovsky—three players who have signed long-term contracts in the last 25 months—have notably helped the Habs rank highly in prospect lists.

Despite this, the Habs still have a few prospects who rank highly in such lists. The most recent example is Scott Wheeler, who writes for The Athletic.

The prospect expert ranked Michael Hage 21st on his list. In Wheeler's view, Hage is the seventh-best prospect (among players not currently in the NHL) in the 2024 draft class.

Alexander Zharovsky (33) and David Reinbacher (48) are also in the top 100. But that's it for the Habs.

We note that Jacob Fowler isn't there, but goalies are never included in the same ranking. Historically, Wheeler releases his top 20 goalies 24 hours after the skaters' list.

This means that Adam Engstrom (who isn't 23 yet and isn't established in Montreal—making him eligible for Wheeler's list) isn't on it either. The analyst may give the edge to younger players (Engstrom is 22), but this is surprising.

Engstrom, unlike Bryce Pickford, isn't even among the honorable mentions.

But the other notable omission is Gleb Pugachyov. The Canadiens' first-round pick, selected 26th overall in the last draft, is neither in the top 100 nor among the honorable mentions.

This isn't surprising, since the Habs are among the draft prospect expert's “losers,” particularly following the selection of Pugachyov.

So I wasn't exactly blown away when I saw Pugachyov (whom the analyst views as a third-line player) outside the top 100 this morning.

It'll be up to the young player to prove the doubters wrong when the time comes.


In a nutshell

– What a contest last night.

– A charity program in honor of Claude Lemieux. [RDS]

– Reminder: the CH has won the Stanley Cup several times.

– Will he pull it off?

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!