{"id":639164,"date":"2026-08-08T08:45:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/639164\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:45:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:45:32","slug":"habs-daily-runtso-prospect-ranking-mooney-nhl-aspirations-xhekaj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/639164\/","title":{"rendered":"Habs Daily: Runtso Prospect Ranking, Mooney NHL Aspirations, Xhekaj"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> and NHL<\/a> news items you may have missed on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens<\/a> News<\/p>\n

Timofei Runtso is one of the newest members of the Montreal Canadiens organization, and fans gave him a fairly high ranking in our annual vote. It was driven by his offensive prowess, size, and very interesting potential that should one day land him a job in the NHL. [Canadiens Top 20 Prospects: Runtso Excites With Offensive Prowess<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Your daily dose of Lane Hutson highlights:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ICYMI: The Canadiens are yet to sign Arber Xhekaj<\/a>, and while the narratives surrounding the 25-year-old defenceman are well established, the truth about his value is somewhere in the middle, as per tradition. If the Canadiens offer Xhekaj a little more consistency in a few key areas, he’d be on the right track to improve both his play, and his impact with the Habs. [Canadiens Top 20 Prospects: Towering Thorpe Punishes Opponents<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Speaking of Xhekaj, he was busy alongside other b’ys<\/a> at Alex Newhook<\/a>‘s annual golf tournament in Newfoundland.<\/p>\n

There’s a very valid reason why opposing teams love playing in Montreal. The intensity is impossible to ignore, just ask Zach Benson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ICYMI: We haven’t quite reached the top 10 in our annual Montreal Canadiens prospect rankings, but that doesn’t mean we’re discussing players who are void of talent. Bogdan Konyushkov was voted as the No. 12 player in our rankings, due to his wealth of experience, offensive instincts, and well-established confidence. However, a crowded blue line may hamper his eventual ascension to the NHL. [Canadiens Top 20 Prospects: Konyushkov Experience Enhances Potential<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Sportsnaut Network<\/p>\n

Some assumed it was a typo. Others a false report. No, instead of signing restricted free agent Ville Koivunen<\/a> to a small deal to allow him a chance to compete for his first permanent NHL roster spot, the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> and general manager Kyle Dubas signed the Finnish winger to a surprising eight-year, $32 million contract Thursday morning. [Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>]<\/p>\n

The time and place for the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>‘ 2026 Prospect Showcase is officially set. The annual prospect tournament will be hosted by the Hurricanes at their Morrisville-based practice facility, Invisalign Center.\u00a0[Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here are the Montreal Canadiens and NHL news items you may have missed on Thursday. Montreal Canadiens News…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[407,974,265,971,5,638,410,502,264,21,5147,4,69780],"class_list":["post-639164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal-canadiens","tag-arber-xhekaj","tag-brendan-gallagher","tag-canadiens","tag-cole-caufield","tag-hockey","tag-ivan-demidov","tag-jayden-struble","tag-lane-hutson","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-montrealcanadiens","tag-nhl","tag-offensive-prowess"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117059015399961649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}