2026 Montreal Canadiens Top 25 Under 25: The Long Shots (55-43)
Introduction
The excitement each year when we do this project is coming up with an order for the top players in the organization, with new additions and great seasons from others shifting how relative value is viewed from summer to summer. But while we all fret over who to move into the top spots, voters also make their task of ranking a high number of players easier by shifting a few players to the lowest ranks to limit the options they have to mull over higher up.
Each year we like to show the full list of players in the project, first looking at those outside of the official Top 25 Under 25 to show where everyone landed. The first reveal is a block of players who are viewed to have very little chance of making it to the NHL, but the group always includes some of the newer draft prospects that no one knows enough about to put them above those who’ve been in the system for a year or two. These are the first 13 of 55 players we’ll reveal in reverse order over the next five-and-a-half weeks.
#55 Daniil Sobolev
Defenceman – 23 – Spartak Moscow (KHL)
With Alexander Gordin no longer around, it’s defenceman Daniil Sobolev who slides to the 55th and final spot, down two places from where he finished last year. He wasn’t always locked into such a low position, making his debut in 2021 at 31st after a couple of years playing with Russian national teams and news that he was coming to North America to work on his offensive game in the OHL.
His first season with the Windsor Spitfires, delayed one year by the COVID-19 pandemic, showed some promise with 17 points in 62 games, but two years later that number had only grown to 25 points with two different clubs, and he returned to Russia.
Last season he played 39 games in the KHL, but had just three points and a -9 rating. His hope of becoming an offensive blue-liner didn’t come to pass, and there’s very little chance we ever see him in the NHL.
#54 Dmitri Kostenko
Defenceman – 23 – Amur Khabarovsk (KHL)
Two rounds earlier in the 2021 NHL Draft, Montreal has selected another Russian defenceman, Dmitri Kostenko. There was a bit more offence shown by Kostenko, and he started off in this project at 28th.
Unlike his compatriot and draft mate, Kostenko stayed in the Russian professional system for his development, though last year he tried his hand in Slovakia’s Extraliga. He enjoyed decent production there with 18 points in 29 games, but since it’s a league of low quality that even Slovak prospects choose not to play in, it didn’t do much for his stock, and he also falls two spots from last summer.
#53 Makar Khanin
Right Wing – 21 – AKM Tula Region (VHL)
Perhaps the Russians in the prospect pool were inspired by Gordin’s reign at the bottom of our rankings and are racing to replace him. Players from that nation make up our final three places, and the misses aren’t limited to Marc Bergevin’s regime. In the same 2024 draft that Kent Hughes’s Canadiens absconded with Ivan Demidov, they used a seventh-round pick on Makar Khanin, who experiences the second-largest drop from 2025 to 2026, sliding eight places.
The selection looked reasonable after Khanin had 27 points in 35 games in Russia’s minor league, the VHL, in his age-19 season to catch the Canadiens’ eye. The next year, he didn’t even hit that total playing in the Junior league. Last season he played a total of 19 games in the VHL, and had seven points. As slim as the hope was for a seventh-rounder to turn into an NHL player, it seems that is dashed now as he founders in the Russian system.
#52 Jack Smith
RW – 24 – Unsigned for 2026-27
Last year when putting this article together I explained why Jack Smith was my lowest-ranked player after he accomplished very little in the NCAA. In 2025-26, he accomplished a bit more in what what his senior season, scoring 11 goals and adding 11 assists following a transfer to Minnesota State University, Mankato.
As the only NHL-drafted prospect on the roster, he still ranked fifth in offence and was a team-worst -8. While it was enough for me to move him up a few places, he falls one spot from 51st in 2025.
Smith’s rights are set to expire on August 15, and it seems unlikely that the Habs will be signing him to an entry-level contract. This was going to be his last year in the project as he turns 25 next July, but his time with the Canadiens might come to an end well before next summer.
#51 Mikus Vecvanags
Goaltender – 20 – Victoria Grizzlies (BCHL)
Mikus Vecvanags was given the chance to improve his profile last year when he made Team Latvia for the World Juniors. He was called upon for the start in the preliminary round against Finland and surrendered eight goals on 41 shots. Things were a little bit better with the Newfoundland Regiment in the QMJHL (.850 save percentage) and respectable in the BCHL with the Victoria Grizzlies (.905), and he’s set to return to Victoria this season as he prepares for the NCAA.
There were seven goalies to rank this year, and that list didn’t even include Jakub Dobeš. There’s a lot of competition and several netminders who show a lot of promise, so one who struggles to achieve a .900 save percentage isn’t going to be very highly regarded, as Vecvanags’s drop of two places demonstrates.
#50 Tyler Deakos
Right Wing – 19 – Penticton Vees (WHL)
Speaking of goalies, it was a trade of Cayden Primeau’s signing rights to the Carolina Hurricanes that netted Montreal a seventh-rounder, which ended up being the final selection in the 2026 NHL Draft after Carolina won the Stanley Cup. At 224th overall, Montreal took Tyler Deakos, an over-age winger who finished his season in the USHL.
The offensive totals were good, with 15 points in 10 games with the AJHL’s Drumheller Dragons before moving on to the Waterloo Black Hawks where he contributed seven goals and 10 assists in 19 games. He will play for the WHL’s Penticton Vees this year as he continues to progress.
I see more of a path for him to make it to the NHL than for some of the other prospects taken earlier in Montreal’s 2026 class, and slotted him the highest of all panellists. This doesn’t feel like other selections that were either attempting to add size or fill a specific need, but more the best player available at the very end of the draft, and I believe that deviation was the right call in this case.
#49 Maxon Vig
Defenceman – 20 – Bemidji State University (NCAA)
Montreal’s final selection in 2025 was Maxon Vig, a big defenceman from North Dakota who had also taken the USHL route and was drafted after his age-19 season. It was a strong preparation for his NCAA career, with 32 points in 62 games, and being named an alternate captain as well.
Last season in the NCAA with Bemidji State he scored six goals in 36 games, somehow ending up with just one assist. He ranked sixth on teams in goals, and was a team-best +11.
Given his offensive numbers and his leadership capacity — he was also captain of his high school team in his final year — he may not be destined to stay in this section with the other late-round picks. A bump in his offensive numbers in his sophomore year could come with a similar rise in this ranking next August.
#48 Wesley Royston
Right Wing – 18 – Owen Sound Attack (OHL)
No player encapsulates the Canadiens’ focus on size in the 2026 draft more than 6’4″ right-winger Wesley Royston. The Canadiens had just made the previous selection at 189th, and opted for Royston at 190th overall.
In addition to his size, he’s also a strong skater who plays a physical game. As was the case with Tyler Thorpe when he was drafted, I’m left with a question: if his physical talents are far superior to his peers, why didn’t he dominate a Junior league? Royston ended 2025-26 with 19 points in 59 games, down from his 27 points the previous year. The Owen Sound Attack had plenty of offensive players, but even if you project his offence to a typical season of about 65 games that his teammates experienced, he would have ranked about 12th in offence.
The physical abilities are undeniable, but I would expect those to translate into solid offensive numbers without breaking a sweat when he’s bigger, faster, and stronger than just about every opponent he faces. Montreal’s amateur scouting staff had a dream of what he could become, but the development staff has its work cut out to turn that into reality.
#47 Andrew MacNiel
Defenceman – 19 – Kitchener Rangers (OHL)
One of the youngest members of the 2025 NHL Draft class, Andrew MacNiel was a sixth-round pick of the Canadiens. He was part of the ongoing plan to build up the number of right-shot defenceman in the system, which you may have noticed from the previous articles has evened the count at 10 apiece in this project for those on the left and right side.
He only had three points in his draft year, which perhaps was explained away by how young he was, but his second full year in the OHL came with just seven points, making him the seventh-most-productive blue-liner on the team.
With that performance alone he was probably looking at a drop this year, but he battled a combination of a knee injury and a respiratory illness that required hospitalization late in the season. He returned halfway through the post-season and helped the Kitchener Rangers take the OHL title and then the Memorial Cup, a minus player in just two of the 12 games played in the toughest portion of the season. That gave him a late boost, and allowed him to finish one spot higher than a year ago.
#46 Ben Merrill
Centre – 20 – Boston University (NCAA)
Taking an extra year to develop in the BCHL before starting his college career and producing less than half a point per game didn’t help Ben Merrill’s position last year. He rebounds in 2026 because he replicated that contribution in the NCAA, and in the strong Hockey East conference to boot.
On a team loaded with NHL prospects, including Lane Hutson’s brother, Cole, Merrill finished 10th in points, but fourth in goals. He also managed to score a goal and be a +2 in the Hockey East quarter-final versus UConn that brought BU’s season to an end.
The caveat is that he turned 20 early in the season so he had a bit more experience than you often see from a university freshman. It was an encouraging performance, however, and if he can improve in 2026-27 with Hutson having moved on to the NHL, he could see a big jump a year from now.
#45 Jean-Samuel Daigneault
Defenceman – 18 – Brantford Bulldogs (OHL)
Not all the defencemen chosen this year were right-handed. Jean-Samuel Daigneault uses a left-handed stick, though it’s mostly for balance as he plays a similar style of game to fellow Habs prospect Owen Protz. He is even set to take up the place Protz vacated in the Brampton Bulldogs’ lineup in the upcoming season.
The difference between the two is that Daigneault is a better skater and can catch up with attackers where Protz’s game is more about positioning and taking the simplest routes. Protz already had an OHL season under his belt when he was selected in 2024, but Daigneault’s highest level of experience is the USHL, playing 47 games for the Muskegon Lumberjacks.
I think most of us would like to see how his game translates to the CHL before making any real determination on his talent, but 45th is a solid debut for a player chosen 221st in a 224-pick draft.
#44 Carlos Händel
Defenceman – 19 – Kölner Haie (DEL)
Carlos Händel holds the same position as last year. His debut at 44th was higher than you’d typically expect of a sixth-rounder, but a productive year with the Halifax Mooseheads showed potential.
The same spot in the order reflects the fact that he held the same half-point-per-game rate in his second QMJHL season as the first. That did drop from the sixth-best mark on the team in 2024-25 to 12th last season as the team added higher-quality players.
Händel has opted to try his hand at professional hockey this season, heading home to Germany to play with Kölner Haie of the DEL. We’ll find out if that’s a step forward or backward in his development, and another appearance with his nation at the 2027 World Juniors will show if any progress is being made.
#43 Arseni Radkov
Goaltender – 19 – Val-d’Or Foreurs (QMJHL)
Hallmarks of the current management’s scouting department are its success in drafting Russian players and goaltenders, so it’s strange that a prospect fitting both descriptions is trending toward being one of the misses.
Arseni Radkov experiences the largest drop from 2025, falling 10 spots from his debut at 33rd. The third-rounder in last year’s draft had regularly posted a save percentage above .900 in his youth, whether that was in Finland in the SM-sarja, or Junior leagues in Russia. His acclimation to North America as he prepares for the NCAA wasn’t up to those standards, however, posting an .894 mark with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, then .882 after being traded to the Saint John Sea Dogs. In 2026-27, he’s set to play with his third QMJHL team, the Val-d’Or Foreurs, before he joins the University of Massachusetts.
As is the case with Vecvanags, a netminder needs to show a lot of quality to stand out in this pool, and it wasn’t a strong post-draft impression from Radkov. He will need to have a bounce-back performance to elevate himself from this group of players.
The next article in this lead-up to the official countdown of each of the top 25 players under the age of 25 looks at those generally regarded to have a better chance of reaching the NHL. There was a gap of over two ranks in the average from Radkov to the player who finished in 42nd on the list.
