Prospect Info: HF Wild Prospect Rankings: #3

[Digitalbooya]

To be fair, I question all of our abilities to evaluate talent.

Cheers to that

 

[Digitalbooya]

I had Faber in the same group as Hunt/Lambos/ROR (all have similar 2nd pair upside). Being that there isn't an competition for him is one of the main reasons I moved him ahead of that group.

I have Faber in the same area as Lambos, with Faber being higher than Lambos due to him being right handed and at more of a position of need. I don't have Lambos as better than any of Yurov/Khusnutdinov/Rossi/Ohgren/Stramel and possibly Heidt. I'd like to get a little more insight into why Heidt fell down to 64.

 

[saywut]

Faber was #4 for me a year ago and #1 on this list. Rossi dropped himself down from 1-4 for me with his performance in the NHL, while Yurov/Wallstedt more or less stayed the course, so my opinion of both hasn't changed. The ~10 game sample did enough for me to ensure that the elite defender at the college level will make a seamless transition to the NHL. I don't really care what number you want to label him as a defenseman, he will play significant even strength minutes, can handle matchups and be relied upon at the end of games to keep pucks out of the net when ahead.

When I look at the forward prospects I don't see anyone special, I'm not convinced there's a point-per-game player in that group, or a player to play on the top powerplay unit or at the end of the game with the goalie pulled. Don't get me wrong, I do believe Yurov, Marat, and Ohgren will be top-9 forwards. But top 3-4 forwards on a contender? I don't see it. Rossi's still got the highest upside but the kid has to want it much more than he showed at the start of last season, and if he doesn't get it figured out this year those 3 will be pushing for spots next year.

Compared to what I thought a year ago;

Prospects who I feel better about - Faber, Marat, Peart, Bankier, Walker, Masters

Prospects I feel the same about - Wallstedt, Yurov, Ohgren, Lambos, Hunt, Lorenz, Spacek, Haight, Beckman, Swaney, Healey, Milne, Petrovsky, Novak, Johansson

Prospects I feel worse about - Rossi, O'Rourke, Firstov, Hentges, Warren

 

[Caser]

Add Firstov, he has been showing some signs of life during the season.

 

[AKL]

Add Firstov, he has been showing some signs of life during the season.

Do you have any other insight on him? There's a healthy contingent here who think he's a bust for going back to the KHL and that he should have stayed here and grinded it out through Iowa. I'm not sure he'd get many votes in the top 20.

 

[Circulartheory]

Add Firstov, he has been showing some signs of life during the season.

Personally, signs of life after 3 seasons of feeling flatlined, hasn't sold me on anything but a bust. But for the sake of the Wild, maybe he could rebound but not holding my breath.

 

[Caser]

Do you have any other insight on him? There's a healthy contingent here who think he's a bust for going back to the KHL and that he should have stayed here and grinded it out through Iowa. I'm not sure he'd get many votes in the top 20.

I don't know how he looked in Iowa in those 9 games played there, but when he arrived to the KHL he looked really useless, immediately reminded me how bad he was back at the World Juniors in 2021. To get the idea, in his first 18 KHL games he scored only 4 points on the attacking-minded Torpedo team, yet he was able to score 22 points in last 29 games and looked not too hopeless. Still just "signs of life", since he still was getting bad penalties and was underwhelming at his own end.

I personally think that if in that shape (not physical shape, but more like mental one I guess) he would've stayed in Iowa he would get sent down to the ECHL very soon and there would be no Larionov to restart him.

 

[Wabit]

I have Faber in the same area as Lambos, with Faber being higher than Lambos due to him being right handed and at more of a position of need. I don't have Lambos as better than any of Yurov/Khusnutdinov/Rossi/Ohgren/Stramel and possibly Heidt. I'd like to get a little more insight into why Heidt fell down to 64.

The changes in my prospect rankings were basically:
-Faber took Addison's spot from last year.
-Stramel took McBain's best center prospect from 2 years ago.

Nobody else really moved up or down in my rankings. For me there isn't much separation after the top 4 or 5, it's all just a bunch of meh. They'll get a couple of NHLers out of the meh, but I couldn't say who.

 

[TaLoN]

Question for the majority, does this mean a lot? He has virtually no competition at the RD position.

No idea if that is important to anyone, was just responding to a comment that Rossi was in danger of falling behind Faber in 6 months on the prospect list. Faber won't be on the prospect list in 6 months is all I was saying.

I will be disappointed if Rossi doesn't also graduate from the prospect list himself too though.

 

[Digitalbooya]

No idea if that is important to anyone, was just responding to a comment that Rossi was in danger of falling behind Faber in 6 months on the prospect list. Faber won't be on the prospect list in 6 months is all I was saying.

I will be disappointed if Rossi doesn't also graduate from the prospect list himself too though.

Rossi is who I am most nervous about. Not in the sense of he's going to explode, but in the sense that he's topped out as a player right now. Contrary to other opinions, he did have a number of dominant shifts in the AHL where he was generating a ton of scoring chances. I just question if he can think fast enough to pull those types of shifts off in the NHL. Has he been spending time with Andy Ness this summer? If he can become a better skater I feel more confident in his game reaching another level.

 

[TaLoN]

Rossi is who I am most nervous about. Not in the sense of he's going to explode, but in the sense that he's topped out as a player right now. Contrary to other opinions, he did have a number of dominant shifts in the AHL where he was generating a ton of scoring chances. I just question if he can think fast enough to pull those types of shifts off in the NHL. Has he been spending time with Andy Ness this summer? If he can become a better skater I feel more confident in his game reaching another level.

Yes he has. also spending the summer with the strength and conditioning coach to put on more beef.
I have hopes that this extra dedication this summer will help transform him like it did Granlund when he faced similar issues, but we'll see.

 

[57special]

Rossi is who I am most nervous about. Not in the sense of he's going to explode, but in the sense that he's topped out as a player right now. Contrary to other opinions, he did have a number of dominant shifts in the AHL where he was generating a ton of scoring chances. I just question if he can think fast enough to pull those types of shifts off in the NHL. Has he been spending time with Andy Ness this summer? If he can become a better skater I feel more confident in his game reaching another level.

That’s some of where I’m at. Rossi did some vg things down in Iowa, and I think he is trying hard, but I am worried that he won’t develop the speed or strength to be an effective NHL player. I mean, Nick Petan is a really good AHL scorer with a similar offensive game to Rossi, but he is a complete non entity at the NHL level because he isn’t strong or fast enough. Rossi has some similar traits.

Not writing him off, but there are definitely doubts about him.