Habs’ bank of hopefuls today is light years ahead of 2015

Not so long ago, the Montreal Canadiens really didn’t have a great bank of prospects.

That’s easy to say, once you see the development of these former Tricolore prospects and where they’ve ended up, but let’s face it, it wasn’t great.

In 2015, the biggest prospects were Nikita Scherbak, Jacob de la Rose and Zach Fucale. We could even include Michael McCarron, who was seen as the saviour at center.

Here’s a list of the Flannel’s top 10 prospects in 2015.

The Habs top 10 prospects from 2015… pic.twitter.com/hWas6LmmZ9

– /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) July 6, 2024

Note that Artturi Lehkonen wasn’t even on this list, even though he had the best NHL career of any of these players.

This has nothing to do with the Habs’ current bank of prospects.

When you think how much hope was pinned on those 10 players, it’s scary, even if some people didn’t see much in them.

Jacob de la Rose now plays in Switzerland’s top division with another former habs player, Raphael Diaz, at HC Fribourg-Gotteron.

Nikita Sherbak joined the French professional league last year, and Zach Fucale is playing with Chelyabinsk Traktor in the KHL for the 2023-24 season.

McCarron earned a regular roster spot with the Nashville Predators, where he played 70 games last year, collecting 22 points.

Aside from McCarron, only Noah Juulsen (Vancouver) and Jarred Tinordi (Chicago) were on an NHL roster in 2023-24.

And let’s just say they didn’t have incredible seasons.

In short, here we are in 2024, with one of the NHL’s finest banks of prospects.

The new management brings a breath of fresh air to the culture, and the scouting team seems to be better than ever.

Today, we’re dreaming of guys like Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov, Lane Hutson and many other quality young players.

Personally, I’m mostly dreaming of Hutson and “Demi-god”, but that’s open to interpretation and there’s no wrong answer, as the quantity of good prospects seems greater than ever in Montreal.

I can’t wait to see what the rookie camp and the official Habs camp have in store for us. There could be some nice surprises in store.