Canadiens top TSN’s Core 4 U-24 team ranking for second straight year

The Montreal Canadiens are repeat champions…on paper.

But will Montreal’s status as the back-to-back No. 1 team in TSN’s annual Core 4 U-24 rankings lead to something special on ice?

The Canadiens, suddenly in the midst of six losses in seven games, marked last year’s lofty standing by making the playoffs for the first time in four years.

What’s next for a team headlined by a pair of projected superstars: 21-year-old left defenceman Lane Hutson and 19-year-old right winger Ivan Demidov?

TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button and FloHockey’s NHL Draft & Prospect Analyst Chris Peters assessed every NHL team’s collection of assets 23 or younger (as of regular season’s start Oct. 7) – blending evaluations of current level of play with projected further development to assign 2025-26 grades.

Players are labeled AAA (superstar), AA (elite), A (No. 1 goalie, top-pair defenceman, first-line forward) or B (tandem goalie, top-four defenceman, top-six forward) or C (backup goalie, depth defenceman, bottom-six forward).

Listed are all players rated B or better, with C players included only to round out Core 4 lists.

Hutson was rated a B player in 2023, an A player in 2024, and is now AAA – in the wake of a Calder Trophy-winning season.

“We finally got it right,” says Button. “It was in front of our eyes all the time. He’s a unicorn. Nobody else plays the game like he does. He speeds the game up, he slows it down, he makes it go sideways.”

Demidov has gone from AA to AAA over the past two seasons in our ranking.

“He’s wired to be a difference-maker,” says Button. “The fire burns hot in him.”

For Peters, the presence of two AAA players – Hutson and Demidov – plus an A-level goalie in Jacob Fowler gives Montreal a slight edge over No. 2 Chicago’s stacked U-24 list, which goes an unprecedented 15 players deep, from AAA to B.

“Fowler has always been one of the best, if not the best, goalies at every level he has played,” says Peters. “He projects as a No. 1 goalie in the NHL, and while no position is more difficult to project, he’s as close as you get to a sure thing in goal.”

Fowler has a .924 save percentage with Laval and shares the American Hockey League lead with three shutouts this season.

Of course, Connor Bedard, tops the list for Chicago. He has rebounded from a disappointing sophomore season to maintain his AAA status and make a highly publicized bid for the Canadian Olympic team.

He had three goals against Calgary on Tuesday to give him 13 for the season, one behind Nathan MacKinnon’s league-leading 14.Bedard is backed up on the Blackhawks by AA centre Frank Nazar, three A players (centre Anton Frondell, plus right defencemen Sam Rinzel and Artyom Levshunov) and a whopping 10 potential top-six forwards.

Rounding out the top three teams is AAA centre Macklin Celebrini’s San Jose Sharks, the only team with three A-level teenagers: Celebrini, 19, A left defenceman Sam Dickinson, 19, and A centre Michael Misa, 18.

Celebrini, like Bedard, had three goals Wednesday, his coming against Utah – and including the overtime winner.Fourth-ranked Anaheim is engineering one of the biggest turnarounds from last season, largely on the strength of AAA centre Leo Carlsson and AA left winger Cutter Gauthier, with a surprise contribution from 19-year-old A right winger Beckett Sennecke.

Newly signed $10-million AA centre Logan Cooley heads up Utah’s fifth-ranked Mammoth group of eight players ranked B or better.

Of significance is that the New York Islanders, never ranked higher than 20th previously, check in at No. 7 this year – largely on the shoulders of Matthew Schaefer, the 2025 first-overall pick who has earned AAA status during a magnificent rookie season.

The only other Canadian team in the top 10 is Ottawa, who could be in for a fall next year since their two best U-24 players will age out: left defenceman Jake Sanderson and centre Tim Stutzle are both 23.

Here are the rest of Canada’s teams:

- No. 20 Calgary has one A player, 18-year-old right defenceman Zayne Parekh, and four more teenagers among a collection of six B players, including University of North Dakota centre Cole Reschny.

- No. 23 Toronto boasts the only AA player on a Canadian U-24 list outside of Montreal and Ottawa, with 22-year-old left winger Matthew Knies scoring at a point-per-game pace in his third NHL season.

- No. 24 Winnipeg also has six B-rated players, led by 23-year-old right winger Cole Perfetti.

- No. 26 Vancouver has one A player, 20-year-old right defenceman Tom Willander, who is in his first pro season after being drafted 11th overall in 2023.- No. 28 Edmonton has a thin U-24 group – not surprising, considering its positioning as a Stanley Cup-or-bust team. Left winger Matt Savoie, 22, is a B player.

Last in the 2025 ranking is Vegas, a team perennially in win-now mode. Its rankings over the four years reflect that reality: 2022-23 (30th), 2023-24 (32nd), 2024-25 (25th) and 2025-26 (32nd).

A final note: Three players in the team-by-team capsules are listed as 23 years old because ages are as of Oct. 7, but have since turned 24: the New York Rangers’ Alexis Lafreniere, Los Angeles Kings’ Alex Laferriere and New Jersey Devils’ Dawson Mercer.

Up next: Core 4 U-24 Top 50 Players, coming Thursday, Nov. 20.

The Top 32 Core 4 U-24 Teams

(Statistics through Nov. 17)

1. Montreal Canadiens (1)

2. Chicago Blackhawks (6)

3. San Jose Sharks (2)

4. Anaheim Ducks (7)

5. Utah Mammoth (13)

6. Detroit Red Wings (3)

7. New York Islanders (28)

8. Ottawa Senators (8)

9. Minnesota Wild (5)

10. Washington Capitals (12)

11. Philadelphia Flyers (15)

12. Columbus Blue Jackets (10)

13. Nashville Predators (24)

14. Los Angeles Kings (18)

*Note - Alex Laferriere was 23 at the start of the regular season on Oct. 7

15. Carolina Hurricanes (11)

16. Dallas Stars (9)

17. New Jersey (4)

*Note - Dawson Mercer was 23 at the start of the regular season on Oct. 7

18. St. Louis Blues (20)

19. Buffalo Sabres (14)

20. Calgary Flames (16)

21. Pittsburgh Penguins (31)

*Note - Emil Pieniniemi was suspended for refusing to report to the ECHL

22. Seattle Kraken (20)

23. Toronto Maple Leafs (17)

24. Winnipeg Jets (22)

25. Boston Bruins (30)

26. Vancouver Canucks (23)

27. New York Rangers (19)

*Note - Alexis Lafreniere was 23 at the start of the regular season on Oct. 7

28. Edmonton Oilers (27)

29. Colorado Avalanche (26)

30. Tampa Bay Lightning (32)

31. Florida Panthers (29)

32. Vegas Golden Knights (25)