Montreal Canadiens’ 2023 Draft Class: 3 Years Later, Where Do They Stand?

The Nashville draft floor felt electric in June 2023. For the second consecutive year, the Montreal Canadiens held a premium first-round selection, and for the second time running, general manager (GM) Kent Hughes kept his cards close to his chest. The guessing game lasted months. Would it be Ryan Leonard? Matvei Michkov? A trade up? When Hughes finally called the name of Austrian defenceman David Reinbacher fifth overall, the room went mixed. Three years later, the Canadiens’ class of 2023 deserves a proper assessment not just of the headliner, but of the nine players selected that week and what they’ve become.

The Reinbacher Question Has Become Harder to Ignore

Hughes’ staff selected Reinbacher with the fifth pick at Bridgestone Arena on June 28, 2023, framing the Austrian blueliner as a high-floor, structurally sound defender capable of growing into a top-four NHL role. The ceiling projection was never outlandish. This was a safe, intelligent selection with a long runway.

That runway, however, has been longer than anticipated. Reinbacher is now the only player selected in the top ten of that draft class who has yet to appear in 10 NHL games, a fact that has fueled real disappointment among fans, especially as peers from the same class have begun making meaningful contributions at the highest level. Injuries have played a role in slowing his path, but even accounting for that, the progression hasn’t been as quick as anticipated.

The 2025-26 season was another interrupted campaign. He posted seven points in 10 American Hockey League (AHL) games in one stretch, a career-high pace before a broken hand sustained early in the year cost him over four weeks. Later, an upper-body hit in a game against the Calgary Wranglers left him day-to-day in late January, just as he had been building momentum with 14 points in 33 games.

Still, the long-term read on Reinbacher doesn’t have to be negative. His overall style draws comparisons to Roman Josi, a player Reinbacher has cited as a model, and the Canadiens’ development staff has remained patient rather than forcing a timeline. The organization’s defensive core is genuinely deep, which removes any urgency to rush him. The question is no longer whether Reinbacher can be an NHLer; it’s whether the path there will continue to be defined by interruptions or finally by consistency.

Fowler Changed the Narrative on This Draft Class

If Reinbacher represents the frustrating subplot, Jacob Fowler has become the most pleasant surprise the 2023 class has produced for Montreal. Selected 69th overall in the third round, a pick many draft watchers viewed as a reach at the time, Fowler made his NHL debut against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Dec. 2025, stopping 36 of 38 shots in a win that immediately announced his readiness.

Through 16 appearances in 2025-26, Fowler posted a record of 8-6-2 with a 2.52 goals-against average, a .904 save percentage, and one shutout, numbers that reflect a legitimate NHL contributor, not a reclamation project. He was good enough in stretches to push for starts over established options, a development few would have predicted when his name was called in the third round.

The Canadiens’ goaltending depth chart has evolved quickly, and Fowler has forced his way into it. For a franchise that hasn’t had reliable goaltending for extended stretches in recent memory, his emergence carries real organizational weight.

The Rest of the Class: A Mixed Picture

Beyond Reinbacher and Fowler, the Canadiens added three defencemen (Bogdan Konyushkov, Luke Mittelstadt), three forwards (Florian Xhekaj, Sam Harris, Filip Eriksson), and two additional goaltenders (Quentin Miller, Yevgeni Volokhin) to the organization.

Three years in, the depth picks are still very much works in progress, which is entirely normal at this stage. Florian Xhekaj (no relation to Arber) was a fourth-round selection who attracted attention as a physical presence, but has not yet carved a clear AHL footprint. Konyushkov, drafted out of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), represents a longer-term project that the organization clearly understood would require patience. Eriksson and Harris remain lottery-ticket names at the minor-league level, low-cost shots at development depth that occasionally pay off in unexpected ways.

The Canadiens’ prospect pipeline has been strong enough overall that the 2023 class doesn’t need every late pick to pan out. But what separates a good draft from a great one is whether the mid-round selections provide genuine organizational value, and that verdict isn’t in yet for most of this group.

What This Class Tells Us About the Canadiens’ Rebuild

The honest evaluation of the 2023 class is this: the headliner has underdelivered relative to draft position so far, the third-round pick has overdelivered dramatically, and the remaining selections are still finding their level. That’s not a bad outcome; it’s a complicated one.

The context matters too. The Canadiens have drafted well enough in surrounding years, Juraj Slafkovský before, and Ivan Demidov and Michael Hage after that. The 2023 class doesn’t carry the organizational burden it might for a franchise without those bookends. Once Reinbacher and fellow prospect Adam Engström fully develop, the Canadiens could have nine capable NHL defencemen in the organization, a surplus that will force Hughes to make difficult decisions about who stays and who moves.

That’s not a sign of a failed draft. It’s a sign of a rebuild that has gone mostly according to plan, with a few timelines shifting and one goalie arriving ahead of schedule.