Caps top 20

[Jussi]

The hawks also have over 20 who have a good chance at the NHL (Babchuk, Barker, Bolland, Berti, Ellison, M Keith, Sindel, Seabrook, Vorobiev, Wisniewski, Barinka, Kukkonen, Radulov, Yakubov, Crawford, Brodeur, Viuhkola, Bickell, Garlock, Kuiper)

I took a look at the Hawks' list and noticed that it's almost a year old. Kevin Kantee should be on that list ahead of Malmivaara.

 

[Sammy*]

Well, just to stir the pot here i'm going to say that Pittsburgh also had an organization full of "can't miss" or "safe" type prospects a few years ago and not many of them really panned out. Milan Kraft, Kris Beech, Michael Sivek, Colby Armstrong, Shane Endicott, Ben Eaves, Toby Peterson, Matt Murley, Michel Rosival, Ramzi Abid, Josef Melichar, Brooks Orpik, Ross Lupaschuk, Michel Ouellet, Noah Welch, Rob Scuderi, and Konstantin Koltsov. Of these 17 prospects, only two or three had made any significant contribution to the Penguins. In other words, don't count your chickens before they've hatched.

Beech, Lupaschuk, and Sivek looked like sure fire NHL prospects at the time of the Jagr deal, but here we are three years later and Kris Beech is a borderline NHL player, Lupaschuk has played 3 NHL games, and Sivek has played 38 NHL games for 6 points.

Bang on.
To suggest that 20 of your prospects have a fairly decent shot at makin it to the NHL (by that I mean playing more than a cup ogf coffee) is optomoistic in the extreme, & likely ludicrous.
Try maybe 5 or so.

 

[Chimaera]

I'm realistic in the idea that maybe 2-3 of the Caps prospects could make solid contributions.


4-5 of that list might be fringe NHL'ers with some AHL time. And the rest is mostly a toss up, with a lot of them ending up on the scrap heap.


Hockey prospects are too much of a crapshoot.

I'm happy to see that the Caps have a lot of decent prospects, but in all honesty, the sheer number of players could hinder the process more than it could help. There are only so many spots/chances for these players to jump out, and some will be dealt for solid proven players.


It'll be interesting to play out, but minus Ovechkin and maybe the group of Morrisonn, Fehr, Eminger will be solid NHL players. And Oulette should as well. Beyond that, it's anyones guess.

 

[PSUhockey34]

The problem with our top 20 is that we have too many potential 3rd line guys...Ovechkin and Aulin seem to be NHL ready and outside of those two the only foward prospect I can see right now in our system that could make an offensive impact is Fehr whereas Klepis, Johansson and Fleischmann are the wildcards of the bunch...hopefully Yonkman can be health for once b/c he could really step into the Caps top 6 and make an impact...the only thing that doesnt concern me about our top 20 is goaltending

 

[Gumby]

I just want to clarify that I wasn't attacking Pittsburgh or their prospects, it's just a pretty good example of the fact that not all your highly regarded prospects are going to pan out. It's that way with every team in the league. To come out and say that there is a good chance that your Top 20 prospects will be NHL players is pretty ridiculous, in my opinion. I'm not even sure that the Top 20 prospects in the entire league right now will be NHL regulars when it is all said and done. Players stock rise and they fall just as quickly if not quicker.

I said that I think all the guys have a CHANCE to make it, which is fairly outstanding considering 99% of the time you look at a teams prospect list (including the Caps 6 months ago) when I'd look at and say why the hell even list these guys, nobody's ever heard of em or ever will. I also said that if even 50% of 'em do make it to the NHL (not reach their full potential and become top-end guys, but make the roster on a full-time basis) they'll have a helluva team.....a statement that I certainly don't see as "pretty ridiculous".

I probally expect (with the current depth on the Caps roster) about 7 or 8 of the guys to become regulars...which I still think is damn good for a farm system to produce outta one group, but my point was that if 10-12 of these guys do make it it'll be one helluva rebuilding job and could really turn the Caps into a real good team in a few years.....and lets not forget that they're gonna suck again next year and will get another high end prospect to add to that top 5 they have listed now.

 

[Gumby]

Bang on.
To suggest that 20 of your prospects have a fairly decent shot at makin it to the NHL (by that I mean playing more than a cup ogf coffee) is optomoistic in the extreme, & likely ludicrous.
Try maybe 5 or so.

I'll clarify this even a little more jut so theres no more confusion on what I meant........IMO each guy (on a player by player basis) in their top 20 has the talent/potential to make it to the big club in some capacity.......certainly not that they will.

 

[txpd]

Do you still consider Yonkman a prospect?

Oh sure. Yonkman has had a string of injuries that have been as much freaky as anything. there is no pattern to them except the timing has been bad. the last two injuries that cost him more than a couple of weeks were results of fights...a broken orbital and a torn acl.

The Capitals have been happy with his play going back 3 years and have seen no fall off because of his injuries, which have all been different. Broken arm, broken orbital, strained ab muscle, torn acl.

With a full training camp (ahl or nhl), he will very likely start the next season on the caps roster.

 

[txpd]

The problem with our top 20 is that we have too many potential 3rd line guys...Ovechkin and Aulin seem to be NHL ready and outside of those two the only foward prospect I can see right now in our system that could make an offensive impact is Fehr whereas Klepis, Johansson and Fleischmann are the wildcards of the bunch...hopefully Yonkman can be health for once b/c he could really step into the Caps top 6 and make an impact...the only thing that doesnt concern me about our top 20 is goaltending

I don't think in the new cba that you can have too many 3rd line prospects. A lot of the payroll savings will be coming from using young, inexpensive players on the 3rd and 4th lines rather than filling those lines with as many veteran specialists as has become the custom over the last several years. A high priced selke level shut down forward will be on the 2nd line and there will be fewer roster spots for players like Kirk Muller, who after 10 years as a 30 goal scorer and a cup winner spent the last 9 years of his career rarely scoring more than 10 goals but making a strong 7 figure salary and providing leadership and locker room and a took a spot on the 3rd or 4th line. Mike Keane did the same with Vancouver last year. Those players will play for $800k or not at all now and players like Brooks Laich and Graham Mink will get their roster spots.

Some teams will use a 3rd line as a young hot shot developement line. They could play Aulin, Fehr and Fleischmann together. While the 3rd line in the pecking order it would be the 2nd offensive line and the Caps might choose the use the 2nd line in pecking order as a shut down line. Should the Caps acquire a veteran forward with both offensive and defensive skills. Say Craig Conroy or Andreas Johansson.
A line of Ovechkin-Conroy-Zubrus could be the Caps top offensive and shut down line at the same time.