HF's Spring 2005 Organizational Rankings (16-30)

[God Bless Canada]

As always, an interesting read. A few thoughts:

*Colorado and TBay are well deserved of their bottom ranking. Remember when the Avs farm was the envy of every team in the league? Well, failure to replenish the system has cost them dearly. Tampa hasn't drafted a top-end prospect (I'm losing confidence in Svitov) since Richards/Lecavalier in 1998. Then again, I'd probably trade my team's reserves for a Cup celebration, too.
*As a Canucks fan, yeah, I think my team should be higher, although not by much. They came in at 24, and while I like their prospects better than say, Dallas, St. Louis or Phoenix, I think the 20-25 range is exactly where we belong.
*I think Carolina is definitely too low. Cam Ward is an elite goalie in the making, and Ladd and Richmond are solid prospects. Detroit and Toronto are a little low, too. Detroit and Toronto could be a little higher too, but they should still be in the bottom 10, with teams like Colorado, TBay, Vancouver, Dallas, St. Louis, Phoenix and the Islanders.
*Calgary has little beyond Phaneuf. Same goes for NJ beyond Parise and Zajac.
*Thought San Jose might be a little higher on the list, although Michalek's knee and Bernier's consistency are worrysome.

 

[Sam]

I also thought San Jose would be higher. Ottawa too.

One question, though. Can I assume that prospects will not be graduated due to age/experience (i.e. Miller, Niittymaki) as Auld (turned 24 in January) and Ahonen (turned 24 in February) are still listed as top prospects?

 

[Barnaby]

Isles should be a few spots lower IMHO. Maybe it's my Ranger bias talking, but the only prospect in their organization that I genuinely think a lot of is Petteri Nokelainen...

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

Meh, I can already see I am not going to like the total list. A couple of the rankings on this one I don't agree with, and about half of those teams I would much prefer over some of the teams that have not appeared yet. The Atlanta Thrashers are a good example of that.

A lot of the teams on this list >>>> Atlanta

 

[McDeepika]

Good list. I will be very interested to see where the oilers end up. Their junior prospects seemed to take big leaps but the farm guys liek Woywitka seem to have taken a step backwards. I would say they finish 6th or 7th

 

[Plager05]

Solid list - these org. rankings are usually pretty weird and this is the best I've seen. Only qualm I'd have is that St. Louis is too high ... I'd have them at #28 with only Colorado and TB lower. Schwarz was a huge disappointment this season, and the rest of their group of prospects is weak as hell. If I were Detroit, I wouldn't take their entire prospect pool for Kronwall alone.

St. Louis was at the perfect spot, at the top of the teams with depleted systems, we actually got a little more viable recently as 4 guys in our top 10 hear were picked in the last draft.

 

[futurcorerock]

Tampa Bay could have been #30, IMO. That group is terrible. What is going in the world? Tampa Bay = defending Stanley Cup champs, no prospects to speak of?
Philadelphia = excellent prospect depth?
Toronto = underrated prospect pool?

It's the like the whole world's gone crazy.

if the CBA goes down the way it might, Philidelphia might have the best team in the NHL coming back IMO

New CBA is probably going to cater to the youth movement and facilitate the cups to teams who exhaustively make prospects a huge priority

 

[Guy Flaming]

I also thought San Jose would be higher. Ottawa too.

One question, though. Can I assume that prospects will not be graduated due to age/experience (i.e. Miller, Niittymaki) as Auld (turned 24 in January) and Ahonen (turned 24 in February) are still listed as top prospects?

HF drops players from "prospect eligibility" only once a year, (in September) but we do the Org list and the top 50 twice a year so you get guys like those you mentioned who will be dropped this fall and they won't be involved in the rankings when they are done early next season.

 

[RangerBoy]

Isles should be a few spots lower IMHO. Maybe it's my Ranger bias talking, but the only prospect in their organization that I genuinely think a lot of is Petteri Nokelainen...

Sean Bergenheim is a good player

 

[RangerBoy]

Ari Ahonen is a potential franchise goaltender?

How straight seasons has Albany missed the playoffs?

 

[mercury]

Since Ahonen will be playing behind Brodeur, we'll never know if he is a franchise goaltender or not. He could still be under the HF limit for games played when he's 30.

 

[MS]

St. Louis was at the perfect spot, at the top of the teams with depleted systems, we actually got a little more viable recently as 4 guys in our top 10 hear were picked in the last draft.

Justify how St. Louis can be ahead of, say, Detroit.

Howard and Schwarz are roughly equal, as are the teams' #2 goaltender prospects Liv and Bacashihua. Up front, Grigorenko is back on form and easily a better prospect than McClement, who is St. Louis' top guy. After that, both teams have a bunch of smallish Euros and there isn't much to choose. On the blueline, Kronwall is better than anything St. Louis has at any position by a country mile. Detroit's #2 defensive prospect, Kyle Quincey, is also better than any defense prospect in the Blues' system. So why would St. Louis be rated higher?

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Justify how St. Louis can be ahead of, say, Detroit.

Howard and Schwarz are roughly equal, as are the teams' #2 goaltender prospects Liv and Bacashihua. Up front, Grigorenko is back on form and easily a better prospect than McClement, who is St. Louis' top guy. After that, both teams have a bunch of smallish Euros and there isn't much to choose. On the blueline, Kronwall is better than anything St. Louis has at any position by a country mile. Detroit's #2 defensive prospect, Kyle Quincey, is also better than any defense prospect in the Blues' system. So why would St. Louis be rated higher?

I wouldn't say McClement is the Blues' top forward prospect. IMO David Backes is, and he has 2nd line power forward potential. I wouldn't say Grigorenko is that much better than him, if at all. As for Quincey, I wouldn't say he's that much better than say Zack Fitzgerald. I guess what I'm trying to say is I have issues with the way the Blues' prospects are ranked.

 

[Vatican Roulette]

I wouldn't say McClement is the Blues' top forward prospect. IMO David Backes is, and he has 2nd line power forward potential. I wouldn't say Grigorenko is that much better than him, if at all. As for Quincey, I wouldn't say he's that much better than say Zack Fitzgerald. I guess what I'm trying to say is I have issues with the way the Blues' prospects are ranked.

Quincey was voted the OHL's #3 best defenseman behind Syvet and someone else(i forget who). Last i heard, Fitzgerald wasn't even in the top 10 of the WHL. And he was one of the last cuts for the WJC team. Also, Backes is a decent to average prospect, while grigorenko is on his way to regaining the old form that had him top 15 on 2 THN future watch lists.

 

[Barnaby]

Sean Bergenheim is a good player

He's noone I'd get too excited about. Nokkelainen on the other hand could have a really nice NHL career. He would have looked really nice on a line with Korpikoski...

 

[rt]

As always, an interesting read. A few thoughts:

*Tampa hasn't drafted a top-end prospect (I'm losing confidence in Svitov) since Richards/Lecavalier in 1998.

Svitov plays for Columbus, not Tampa.

 

[SmokeyClause]

Svitov plays for Columbus, not Tampa.

Correct, but his point still stands. He was merely saying that he feels the Lightning are not good drafters (at least since 1998) and used Svitov (a TB draft pick) as an example.

 

[Ajacied]

Don't care much for the list.. but I'd see the Stars between 20/15.. Not that it keeps me awake at night though.

 

[WC Handy*]

Justify how St. Louis can be ahead of, say, Detroit.

Howard and Schwarz are roughly equal, as are the teams' #2 goaltender prospects Liv and Bacashihua. Up front, Grigorenko is back on form and easily a better prospect than McClement, who is St. Louis' top guy. After that, both teams have a bunch of smallish Euros and there isn't much to choose. On the blueline, Kronwall is better than anything St. Louis has at any position by a country mile. Detroit's #2 defensive prospect, Kyle Quincey, is also better than any defense prospect in the Blues' system. So why would St. Louis be rated higher?

What I put in bold above says plenty about your knowledge of the Blues system. As Rabid Ranger already pointed out Backes is probably the Blues top forward and I think it's safe to say he's not a 'small euro' as you claim that's all the Blues have. Then there's Soderberg who isn't exactly small, but he is Euro, so you're 50% right on him. I would take both of those players over Grigorenko (because he IS NOT back to form) and Hudler and I'd take McClement, Shkotov, Sejna, and Alexandrov over any other Wings forward.

The fact of the matter is the only reason why this is even close is because Kronwall hasn't developed as fast as he should have. Had he been in the NHL for the majority of last season like he should have been, he wouldn't even be considered a prospect any longer.

 

[Seph]

He's noone I'd get too excited about. Nokkelainen on the other hand could have a really nice NHL career. He would have looked really nice on a line with Korpikoski...

Odd that you're excited about Korpikoski then, as they're extremely similar players.

 

[HuskyFlames]

As always, an interesting read. A few thoughts:

**Calgary has little beyond Phaneuf. Same goes for NJ beyond Parise and Zajac.

I would easily challenge your view on Calgary's prospects. Not many team's have a legit #1, possible franchise prospect defenseman in their system. The Flames also have some under the radar guys like Prust (future 3rd line, shut down man - see what he did to Crosby), Nystrom (same thing), Boyd (similar upside to Lombardi), Chuko (same thing) and Krahn (really bounced back and looking to be a #1 starting goalie in AHL for Omaha next year) plus you can add in Ramholt (very strong 2 way defenseman that doesn't get mentioned enough because lack of people seeing him play) and a few guys have really stepped it up since being drafted such as Aki Seitson, etc. Many of Calgary's picks are project players, which will take 2-3 years since being drafted before starting to really shine or show their owrth, unlike the flash in the pants, 1 dimensional scorers there everyone gets so high on. All the Flames need is more depth and a couple boom/bust forwards to even out the crop.