Top-23 players under 23: the Habs are the NHL’s best-represented team

Dose
Crédit: Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Since the beginning of the week, the NHL has been highlighting its young stars. Via its social networks, it has been showcasing its young talent in a variety of ways, including presenting a little of the players’ personalities.

Juraj Slafkovský, for example, has been featured in recent days.

That said, the league’s official website asked its various editors to vote for various rankings of the league’s best young players. In the under-25 age group, the Habs look good offensively (Cole Caufield), defensively (Lane Hutson) and in front of the net (Jacob Fowler).

Today, however, the league’s official website shared a ranking of the under-23s. It did so in the form of a top-23… which is pretty conceptual, we agree.

And what you notice when you look at the list is that the Habs are the best-represented team in the league. We’re talking about the only team with four representatives, with Lane Hutson, Juraj Slafkovský, Ivan Demidov and Zachary Bolduc all on the list.

When you read the article associated with the rankings, you learn that nine editors had to make their top-25, and that each position was worth one point more than the previous one. To put it simply, a player in first place would get 25 points, while the one in second place would get 24 and so on.

So it’s interesting to see that Hutson, in third place, had the most first-place votes, with five. Connor Bedard (1st) received three, while Macklin Celebrini (2nd) received the other.

This seems to indicate that Hutson is a slightly more polarizing player: he was visibly lower on some lists, which caused him to drop in the rankings.

As for the other Habs players, we note that Juraj Slafkovský is 10th, while Ivan Demidov is 14th. And when we look at the points in the article, we see that the two forwards aren’t very far apart.

For Demidov, it’s pretty interesting given that he’s only played seven games in the NHL. He’s already ahead of established guys like Owen Power, Mason McTavish and William Eklund, and that just goes to show how highly regarded the kid is across the league.

Bolduc, meanwhile, closes the gap at 23rd. He’s put himself on the radar this season with a fine rookie year, and under the Montreal spotlight, he’ll have the opportunity to gain even more popularity.

Do you agree with this ranking?

Overtime

– Speaking of Hutson.

– Whew.

– Indeed.