NHL 26 Releases Top 10 Habs Players Ratings

The next best is a tie between three players, Lane Hutson, Noah Dobson and Cole Caufield at 88 overall. While, I’m not surprised to see Dobson and Caufield at 88 overall, for Hutson I was a little shocked based on how these games usually rate 2nd year talents as generously as an 88 unless you are a generational talent like Connor McDavid or Sidney Crosby. Very rarely do you see a player jump so much between his rookie season where Hutson started as an 82 rating in NHL 25 and then the next year he jumps 6 ratings up to 88 overall. I mean I do think Hutson deserves to be an 88 overall, I’m just surprised that EA saw that as well given their history with ratings for young stars players in their first seasons. It’s nice to see that the Habs best defenseman gets rewarded as such in NHL, this time around. I just expected him to be like an 85 or 86 overall.

Another shocker came with Kaiden Guhle being tied for the next highest overall with Mike Matheson as an 86 overall. In both cases, I could say I’m surprised that they aren’t an 84 or 85 overall. For one, Guhle is a solid defensive defenseman but he doesn’t have the offensive game to match what an 86 overall defenseman usually is in NHL games. Last year he started at an 84 overall, and while he had a great season I don’t feel his play actually merited an 86 overall. This is why I would have expected an 85 overall with his slight growth from last year. Then we have Mike Matheson, it is very clear he had a down year and likely should have a couple ratings in NHL 26 than NHL 25, but EA has given him some grace and only dropped him to an 86. It’s hard to believe that players like Patrik Laine with his elite shot or Samuel Montembeault who had a very solid season in nets are below Matheson but they are.

Montembeault and Laine aren’t far behind in ratings at 85 overall but I would definitely argue that they should be better than Matheson. In fact I do think an 85 overall is fair for Laine, who had an up and down year. However he did prove his shot is as good as it has ever been. Montembeault jumped up from an 83 to an 85 in NHL 26, however his performance likely merited an 86 or 87 overall based on the overalls for the Habs at 86 overall. There is no way Guhle or Matheson are better than Montembeault in my opinion. On top of Montembeault and Laine being an 85 overall, EA also gave Ivan Demidov and Juraj Slafkovsky and 85 overall. For Slafkovsky, I feel 85 overall is the perfect overall for the up and coming power forward. As for Demidov as great as he is I’m surprised he isn’t starting his rookie season as an 82 or 83 overall similarly to Hutson last year. An 85 overall is an amazing start for a rookie and it truly shows that the pressure is on for him to be a serious Calder Trophy contender. Demidov will likely grow as the season goes on but 85 is still a very high start and it shows the Canadiens will be a good team according to NHL 26.

Those are the top 10 Habs players in NHL 26. What are your thoughts on the ratings?