NotOpie
"Puck don't lie"
Sparked by a conversation on another thread, I thought it might be a good exercise to rate/rank our prospect pool. In my case I'm going to use some combination of "best chance to get to the NHL", "highest potential impact in the NHL", and "opportunity to get the the NHL the soonest". I'm not going to include guys like PDG or McGinn given that they are already, borderline NHL'ers.
Here's my list as of this second (we all know how changeable things are):
1. Haydn Fleury
2. Aleksi Saarela
3. Valentin Zykov
4. Jake Bean
5. Lucas Wallmark
6. Janne Kuokkanen
7. Julien Gauthier
8. Nicolas Roy
9. Warren Foegele
10. Roland McKeown
11, Callum Booth
12. Trevor Carrick
13. Andrew Poturalski
14. David Cotton
15. Matt Filipe
Honorable Mentions:
A - Spencer Smallman
B - Alex Nedeljkovic
C - Jeremy Helvig
A couple of quick comments....while I think Zykov gets to the show sooner and more consistently than Saarela, I believe that, ultimately, Aleksi has the greater upside. Even though Jake Bean has been inconsistent in international play, what he did on a pretty poor Hitmen team this season after coming back from injury was impressive. Interestingly enough, I'd likely have Kuokkanen ranked a bit higher, but I believe he will miss out on making the big club next season and therefore end up back in Finland for a year....which might be the best thing for him at this juncture.
Here's my list as of this second (we all know how changeable things are):
1. Haydn Fleury
2. Aleksi Saarela
3. Valentin Zykov
4. Jake Bean
5. Lucas Wallmark
6. Janne Kuokkanen
7. Julien Gauthier
8. Nicolas Roy
9. Warren Foegele
10. Roland McKeown
11, Callum Booth
12. Trevor Carrick
13. Andrew Poturalski
14. David Cotton
15. Matt Filipe
Honorable Mentions:
A - Spencer Smallman
B - Alex Nedeljkovic
C - Jeremy Helvig
A couple of quick comments....while I think Zykov gets to the show sooner and more consistently than Saarela, I believe that, ultimately, Aleksi has the greater upside. Even though Jake Bean has been inconsistent in international play, what he did on a pretty poor Hitmen team this season after coming back from injury was impressive. Interestingly enough, I'd likely have Kuokkanen ranked a bit higher, but I believe he will miss out on making the big club next season and therefore end up back in Finland for a year....which might be the best thing for him at this juncture.