Model Projects A Future For Montreal Far Better Than Toronto's
An expert model has ranked every NHL teams prospect pools and it shows the Habs having one of the brightest futures and the Leafs having one of the most gloomy ones.
The Expert Model
Byron Bader is an expert prospecting analyst who has created a complex system that identifies quality prospects and projects them at being certain caliber players. His work has garnered a lot of attention in the hockey community with him amassing over 20,000 followers on Twitter and NHL executives paying for full access to his model.
In a recent post that has gotten a lot of attention, he ranked every single NHL teams prospect pools. Of note, the Montreal Canadiens have the second best pool and the Toronto Maple Leafs have the 20th best pool.
The Future Is Bright In Montreal
Bader's model accounts for five different aspects, the chances the top five prospects become stars, the chances the top five become NHLers, the chance their depth prospects become stars, the chances their depth prospects become NHLers and the chances their goalie prospects become NHLers.
Of these five aspects, Montreal ranks first in the chances the top five become NHLers and second in the chances their depth prospects become NHLers.
Bader's thoughts on the pool are as follows:
While he mentions how Matvei Michkov would have been perfect in the Habs system, it cannot be ignored how strong of a pool it is. He also mentions how they need some strong centre prospects but with Nick Suzuki, Kirby Dach, and now Alex Newhook, they are doing just fine with youthful centres.
The Grim Future Of Toronto
On the contrary, Toronto's future is looking not that great. Having the 20th ranked pool, their pool has shown a true lack of star power.
Their number one prospect, Matthew Knies, is debatably not even a top five prospect in Montreal's system. In addition to this, their 2-5 prospects are simply not as strong as Montreals.
One could argue how Montreal has had higher picks but Montreal's pool is deeper than Toronto and also has prospects like Lane Hutson who are high end despite not being first round picks.
It is also notable to mention how the Leafs 2023 first round pick Easton Cowan is not even in their top five which further proves how bad of a pick that was.
Final Thoughts
It looks like it will only be a couple years before Montreal surpasses Toronto in the standings considering how strong their prospect pool is and how it looks like the Core Four's future in Toronto may be non existent.
Young prospects who buy into the Martin St. Louis system will be rewarded and soon Montreal's fans will be rewarded for these years of sorrow.
| POLL | ||
Who will be better in 2026? | ||
| The Montreal Canadiens | 370 | 79.9 % |
| The Toronto Maple Leafs | 93 | 20.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
