David Sklenicka, Michal Moravcik, McShane, McNiven, Harris, Romanov, Olofsson, the list goes on and on. You missed lots of top prospects.

MTL has started to amass good prospect depth. Some are years away, but its a good start

By 2025 we will start to become the Montreal Canadiens again.

yup, as long as they continue to draft and develop and not trade them away

Our goaltending will be good by that time primeau, Mcniven , Lindgren Montreal will probably have another good goalie too

This is fun except there's precious little on which to base all this optimism. Aside from being pretty good at drafting defencemen, the Habs history of drafting and developing forwards is pathetic. Were it not for Gallagher, who has exceeded every scouts' wildest expectations, the Habs have hardly anything to show from the drafting of forwards: Scherbak (???), McCarron (!!!) JDLR and Lehkonen (meh)... So why do we assume Kotkeniemi and Poehling are going to break that pattern of mediocrity? I hope you're right, but I've stopped expecting it.

For a guy who comes from an industry that's all about quality control, it's amazing that Molson hasn't busted more heads in his scouting ranks.

This is a major reason why Sylvain Lefebvre was fired (albeit years too late) and why they hired Joel Bouchard for the Rocket. The also added Dominique Ducharme to the pro bench. Overall their prospect/young player development should vastly improved if the coaching successes they had in junior continue. So while you continuously look to the past, you need to keep in mind that they've undergone a massive overhaul here. I've long believed this was and would lead to their downfall and it shows. The Habs didn't necessarily draft bad in the past, but any development was basically solely on the player themselves.

Maybe, but while the Habs seem to pick Dmen who either make it in Montreal or find a way to scrape out an NHL career, the same is not true of forwards. Honestly, I think the scouts know what it takes to be an NHL dman but are oblivious to what makes up a good forward. Now you can't predict that your top draft pick is going to be a daddy-worshipping-alcoholic, but when you look at Scherbak (early), McCarron. JDLR, Collberg, even Lehkonen there's a pattern of mediocrity within the forwards. Let's hope Poehling and JK are the harbingers of change.

There's also the failure to develop Galchenyuk.

Galchenyuk was next to uncoachable and has serious booze problems (and maybe other things). His father, who is an idiot former IHLer who came over when the Berlin Wall came down, was a constant and unwanted presence in the Habs dressing room. He would text his son between periods with not-so-helpful game advice. Until he sends his father packing (along with his lost dreams), Chucky will be a lesser hockey player than he should be.

From what I heard, Galchenyuks Dad was a nightmare. I love Galchenyuk and I think he could have been a really good player(still is) but If you want to take an example on how not to develop a player, see Galchenyuks case.
You don't score 30 on accident and you don't score 30 from pucks hitting you in the shin pads and going in.

So I don't blame Alex, I blame his Dad and the entire MTL organization. They consistently toyed with him. "Your a center.....oh wait you made a bad player here so.... now your a winger." then to only retry a few weeks later. Pick a position, let him go through the issues and work them out on his own. Kind of like anyone at work, you get a new position, make a few mistakes and learn from them and with time you are great at your job.
The Door knob of a coach now pretty much buried him and now he is playing in Arizona.

The Booze rumour is on him though(never heard about those rumours).

Substance abuse was an issue and Montreal is really not the place for a father/son combo that likes to party together. The flip side is Domi, being diabetic since childhood, treats his body with great care.

As for blaming the coaches, it's worth remembering that, for whatever reasons, Chucky failed to impress either of Therrien or Julien. You might not like them but both have coaches marquee centremen at different times in their careers. And both want to win games, first and foremost. They clearly saw something missing in Galchenyuk and, twice, lost faith in him. We heap a lot of this on Bergevin but it is coaches who decide how to use players. Kirk Muller knows centremen and, if he could have got Chucky to focus, you'd think he would have.

My hope is that Domi shows he's a true centreman in training camp and either Drouin can be moved back to the wing or we see a set up of Drouin-Domi-Danault up the middle with Pacioretty, Lehkonen, Gallagher, Scherbak, Armia and Hudon alongside them. Byron and Shaw, once healthy, would slot in alongside Plekanen. JDLR, Rychel, Deslaurier and McCarron will fight for any remaining playing time.