As he does every year, The Athletic's prospect expert Scott Wheeler has released his rankings of the top 50 NHL prospects, ages 23 and under, who are not playing in the NHL on a regular basis. With the Montreal Canadiens in the midst of a rebuilding period, it's interesting to know who the organization's top prospects are and where each of them stands in relation to the rest of the NHL. The Wild and Blue Jackets are the teams with the most ranked prospects with four players each. There are seven teams with no ranked prospects on the list, including the Golden Knights, Capitals, Panthers, Islanders, Penguins, Lightning and Avalanche. The Tricolore still has a very interesting result with three young players ranked in Wheeler's top 50 list. Note that the CH could have had four if Juraj Slafkovsky had not played regularly with the big club this season. The 18 year old prodigy Lane Hutson is as high as 17th on the list, which is quite impressive. What a progression this young man is making, having been selected as low as 62nd in the last draft. He is actually higher than many of the higher picks in the last few drafts such as Marco Rossi (9th overall in 2020), Marco Kasper (8th overall in 2021), Alexander Holtz (7th overall in 2020) and William Eklund (7th overall in 2021), among others. We can also find the next possible prospect to make the jump to the NHL, likely by the end of the season, Sean Farrell, at #41 on the list. Finally, the third player in the organization that was ranked by Wheeler is Owen Beck at 50th and last on the list. There are also two other CH names on the honorable mention list, Filip Mesar and Joshua Roy. In all honesty, I am not denigrating the work of The Athletic's expert, but seeing the list of players named in the honorable mentions, I strongly consider that Logan Mailloux should have been there too. In short, for those who wonder if this ranking is encouraging for the future of the organization, I would say yes, absolutely! Let's not forget that several young players from the current team such as Kaiden Guhle, Justin Barron, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky would have all had a place in this list, if they were not already regulars in the NHL. Add to that also that Kent Hughes and the Habs will have a golden opportunity to add at least two top talents in the upcoming draft, with two selections expected to be in the top-15. The future is very bright in Montreal! For your curiosity, here is Scott Wheeler's top-10: <q>1. Logan Cooley (Arizona) 2. Luke Hughes (New Jersey) 3. David Jiricek (Columbus) 4. Simon Nemec (New Jersey) 5. Simon Edvinsson (Detroit) 6. Brandt Clarke (Los Angeles) 7. Shane Wright (Seattle) 8. Quinton Byfield (Los Angeles) 9. Logan Stankoven (Dallas) 10. Matthew Savoie (Buffalo)</q> <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/scottcwheeler/status/1625115440656617474'> </a></blockquote></div>