DeathFromAbove said:
Hugh Jessimen
Igor Knyazev
Jeff Taffe
These three give me the most trouble. Igor Knyazev has done nothing at all to even merit making a top 100 prospect list besides be taken in the first round of a draft a few years ago. His development has hit a brick wall and he hasn't progressed in his play one bit since coming over to the AHL two seasons ago.
2002-03 Lowell Lock Monsters AHL 68 2 5 7 68 -- -- -- -- --
2003-04 Springfield Falcons AHL 72 1 6 7 61
For those claiming he is a defensive defenseman, he's a -33 in his two years in the AHL so far. His play has just been horrible for his entire career in North America and it would have been a shame had he made the Top 50 list. For all those wondering, I was this hard on him even while he was a member of the Carolina Hurricanes. It's just that he has shown no signs of development, and i've heard people say his play actually regressed this season instead of improved.
Jeff Taffe is 23 years of age as well, and has shown no significant increase in his production in order to grant him a slot on the Top 50 prospects list or even for consideration. He has played 79 NHL games as well, which is about the same or more than Eric Staal, Patrice Bergeron, and Nathan Horton. Is there something i'm missing about Taffe that would merit his name mentioned in such high regard? I've heard Coyotes fans this season say that Taffe hasn't progressed as fast as they expected and are not expecting him to be a major impact player anymore. He hasn't even done much in order to be considered a top prospect since he left Minnsota besides put up a season of just below a point per game at the AHL level. Heck, Mike Zigomanis did that this year and was named the MVP of the AHL all-star game. I'd think him more deserving than Taffe, who has consistantly failed to solidify a spot on the Coyotes for the past three seasons. Not saying Zigomanis deserved to be on the list, but if one could argue for Taffe, one could argue that point as well.
Now, Hugh Jessimen. While I understand why he could have slid onto this list, he's not nearly a top 50 prospect in my estimation. He has shown no signs of significant growth this year at Dartmouth, as he was expected to be even more dominant with a year of physical and mental progression behind him. He managed to put up numbers that weren't quite as good as they were a year ago. While he does have the size and potential, Jessimen was a pick based simply upon the principal of maximizing his potential in order to be a dominant player. Had he shown major steps forward this year, it would have been perfectly acceptable for him to garner such praise. However, I don't think he made enough forward progress to be considered above some of the people who were on the short "bubble list", if you will.