The Habs have been rebuilding for several years now. During this period, the club has acquired Juraj Slafkovský, David Reinbacher, Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov, among others, with the aim of building a quality core for the future.
That said, we shouldn’t forget that some of the pieces were already in place during the Marc Bergevin era. Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Kaiden Guhle, who are already big hitters in town, were acquired by the former administration.
And Nicolas Cloutier (TVA Sports) agrees, publishing his ranking of the NHL’s best players 25 and under.
The result? The Habs are represented three times: Suzuki (11th), Caufield (19th) and Slafkovský (21st) are all present.
Here’s a very unscientific and, above all, very arbitrary exercise I’ve been working on over the past few weeks: the NHL’s top 25 players aged 25 and under.
Confidence: I had no idea where to rank Nico Hischier. https://t.co/kO9JiNAKme
– Nicolas Cloutier (@NCloutierTVA) July 23, 2024
That said, the ranking in question led to an interesting debate, with some questioning the fact that Suzuki (11th) is ranked just ahead of Tim Stützle (12th), who has a reputation for being a better offensive player than the Habs captain.
Nick Suzuki or Tim Stutzle to build a team?
Nicolas Cloutier revisits his list of 25 players under 25 in Le Retour des sportifs. Link here: https://t.co/Sf5rtLVBGr #NickSuzuki #TimStutzle #Canadiens #Habs #Sens #Hockey #NHL @NCloutierTVA pic.twitter.com/Zx3nkiuoZh
– BPM Sports (@BPMSportsRadio) July 23, 2024
Nonetheless, that doesn’t change the fact that when you look at how the Habs’ youngsters stack up across the NHL, you realize that the club is really banking on a core of high-quality young players.
There’s a reason there are so many optimistic fans in town, after all.
Overtime
– What’s that?
New Zealand women’s soccer team claim they were spied on at a training session on Monday in St. Étienne by Canada Soccer via drone surveillance.
They have made an official complaint to the IOC.
Canada plays New Zeland Thursday morning 11 ET. #Paris2024https://t.co/m4VSkbwCPG– Shireen Ahmed (@_shireenahmed_) July 23, 2024
– Looking forward to it.
Kevin Hayes intends to restore his relevance: https://t.co/GWB79FXZyT
– TVA Sports (@TVASports) July 23, 2024
– Really?
It’s not a popular sentiment, though. https://t.co/Plx3WKqvIz
– Passion MLB (@passion_mlb) July 23, 2024