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 the 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 12 of the 55 players we’ll reveal in reverse order over the next five-and-a-half weeks.

#55 Alexander Gordin

Forward – 24 – Unsigned for 2025-26

I have some bad news for everyone: this is the last time you can seek out the name “Alexander Gordin” and bury him at the bottom of your list. While the Canadiens hold his signing rights indefinitely as a player drafted out of Russia, time has run out for inclusion in this project as he turns 25 on July 31, 2026. As it was for Arvid Henrikson in 2022, it’s the end of an era for Gordin.

After bouncing around several teams in recent years, it appears that he is yet to receive a contract for this season. In 2024-25, still playing in the VHL, Russia’s equivalent of the AHL, he scored 15 goals in 41 games, a per-game rate that would have ranked second on the team.

Personally, I believe his goal-scoring is more NHL-projectable talent than several of the other players in the system possess, and so I have him at 51st on my list, with a few other panellists feeling the same way.

#54 Ty Smilanic

Forward – 23 – Unsigned for 2025-26

Ty Smilanic was unique in the project this year because he didn’t play in 2024-25. His last action was with the Lions de Trois-Rivières a season ago, when he scored one goal and added six assists in 31 games before taking a leave from the team.

He still has one more year of eligibility for the Top 25 Under 25, but we’ll see if there’s any news about his hockey future over the next 12 months.

#53 Daniil Sobolev

Defenceman – 22 – Spartak Moscow (KHL)

After several years in the Ontario Hockey League, coming overseas to work on his offensive game, Daniil Sobolev returned to Russia last year to play in the VHL. He had three goals and 10 assists with Khimik Voskresensk, ranking fifth among the defence corps in scoring.

He was a +17 in 55 games however, which might just be enough to get him a look with Spartak of the KHL this season, with whom he’s under contract.

#52 Dmitri Kostenko

Defenceman – 22 – Khimik Voskresensk (VHL)

Dmitri Kostenko played with Sobolev and had 11 points in the regular season while playing only 27 games, significantly under the total of 20 points he had in 22 games while playing in Khanty-Mansiysk the previous season. He stepped up in the playoffs in a big way, however, with 12 points in 18 games.

It’s hard to get a true gauge on any of the Russian player without seeing how he plays in the KHL, and in Kostenko’s case his last experience was with the Kunlun Red Star in 2022-23. It would take another stint there for him to move up the list, but he has a couple more years to make a better impression on voters.

#51 Jack Smith

Forward – 23 – Minnesota State-Mankato (NCAA)

The player I pulled down to last place when making my list was Jack Smith, one whose production dropped from 12 points in his sophomore season at the University of Minnesota to nine in his junior year. It was far from a strong team last year, but he ranked ninth in offence behind three undrafted defencemen while also holding the second-worst plus/minus.

In Marc Bergevin’s tenure with the Canadiens, his scouting staff often dipped into the Minnesota high-school system to make a pick. In Smith’s case they selected a player who had won a state championship the season before his draft year. It doesn’t appear that the 102nd overall pick from the 2020 NHL Draft is going to blossom into the player the former GM envisioned, but it was probably smart on Smith’s part to switch schools and try to change his fortunes with Minnesota State.

#50 Maxon Vig

Defenceman – 19 – Bemidji State University (NCAA)

It felt like the Canadiens just scanned the list of remaining players and took the heaviest one they saw with the final pick they held this summer when selecting Maxon Vig. The big defenceman did show some offensive talent with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the USHL, doing so often by crashing his 212-pound frame to the crease to pound the puck in.

While there was very little information on him to get a good assessment, he does seem to possess some leadership abilities as he was the captain of his high school team and wore an A with Cedar Rapids. We all really just need to learn more about him to know where he actually fits among the other players, which is usually the case for these late-rounders. It wouldn’t take much for him to move up in 2026 with a good first season at Bemidji State.

#49 Mikus Vecvanags

Goaltender – 19 – Brooks Bandits (BCHL)

It was a rough year for Mikus Vecvanags, who wanted to get acclimated to North America before starting his NCAA career. He started off in the QMJHL with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, posting an .867 save percentage in nine games. He then moved to Alberta to play with the Brooks Bandits of the BCHL, where that mark only slightly improved to .881, but he did at least have a more enjoyable experience with a 4-1 record.

He still has another season before heading off to the University of Maine, and he’ll hope he can increase his number into the .900s, as it was at each level he played in Latvia in his draft year.

#48 Andrew MacNiel

Defenceman – 18 – Kitchener Rangers (OHL)

Andrew MacNiel is another of the late-round selections Montreal made who, at first glance, doesn’t seem to offer much to the prospect pool beyond his 6’3″ size. He has played 38 games in the OHL, contributing three points for the Kitchener Rangers, with none to show for 12 post-season contests.

He slots in at 48th by virtue of having to rank above Vig because he was claimed a pick earlier by the Habs. Montreal liked the rapid progress he made in getting comfortable with the OHL game last season, hoping that was a sign he can develop into something down the road. We will have to wait and see what 2025-26 has in store for him.

#47 Ben Merrill

Forward – 19 – Boston University (NCAA)

We had the extra year to evaluate Ben Merrill after his debut at 44th last summer. Kent Hughes’s own pick from the Minnesota high-school system in 2024, Merrill also went the BCHL route to prepare for his future in the NCAA. He ended up producing less than half a point per game in the regular season, which would have been concerning even in the CHL let alone the second tier of Junior hockey. He did, however, net nine points in the playoffs.

The numbers don’t suggest a future member of an NHL team, especially as a 6’4″ player who should have been able to overpower most of the opponents he faced. Perhaps he can use his size more to his advantage at Boston University this year.

#46 Emmett Croteau

Goaltender – 21 – Dartmouth College (NCAA)

Emmett Croteau had always ranked in the last few spots after getting drafted 162nd overall in 2022. Following his first year in the NCAA in 2023-24 when he played just six games with Clarkson University and allowed 18 goals, he dropped to his lowest position of 52.

He was a new man in 2024-25 in Hanover, New Hampshire playing for Dartmouth College, posting a much more respectable mark of .903 and winning 13 of the 18 games he played in. The reward was a jump of six places to the top end of the “long shots” category instead of languishing near the bottom. Should he replicate last season’s performance, we might not see him in this article in a year’s time.

#45 Makar Khanin

Forward – 20 – Dynamo Moscow (KHL)

Our Patrik Bexell wondered aloud on several occasions last season why Makar Khanin was getting so little ice time in Russia. He showed decent offensive production in the MHL with 19 points in 34 games, and finished second in team scoring in MHK Dynamo Moscow’s playoff run with nine points in eight games (even if six of them came in one particularly high-scoring affair to close out an opening-round series).

Like just about every Russian prospect, he received very low minutes in his KHL games, but the fact that he got into four matches in the top league with Dynamo Moscow as a 19-year-old is notable in itself. Khanin possesses some talent, and hopefully we’ll see him playing more often at the VHL or KHL level this year.

#44 Carlos Händel

Defenceman – 18 – Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL)

Carlos Händel was one of the bright spots on what wasn’t a very strong Halifax Mooseheads team. He stands as the only player from that squad to catch the eye of an NHL team, selected in the middle of the sixth round by Montreal.

The German defenceman had a very good showing in 2023-24 with the Malmö Redhawks’ under-18 team by contributing 23 points in 28 games, and he showed he could produce in the North American game as well with 26 points for Halifax.

With a game built on speed and transition play, he already has a leg up on several players who are held back by their skating ability. He tops the list of long shots in his first appearance in this series, and it would be surprising if he isn’t several spots higher in 2026, maybe skipping the next tier altogether.

Click the play button below to listen to our podcast episode on the longshots, featuring Patrik Bexell, Matt Drake, and Jared Book discussing those who have the toughest road ahead of them to get into the top 25.

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 2.5 ranks from Händel to the player who finished in 43rd on the list. Tomorrow’s group of eight players who make up the Projects category finished within 3.5 spots of one another in the 12-panellist average.