I'm curious on your thoughts about Zherenko. You voted Hofer early, so you don't shy away from goalies. Do you not think he's good? Too risky? Not as valuable with Hofer in the system?
I don't dislike him at all. He will probably be my vote once Tucker is off the board. I wouldn't downplay how impressive it is for him to be in conversation as our 11th best prospect. 7 of the 10 guys currently ranked ahead of him are 1st round picks that are younger than him. Plus you have Hofer, who is only 8 months older than him and outplayed him in the AHL last year. Our prospect pool is really deep and he is still in the running to be top 12. Given that talent assessment, he could be top 8 in a lot of groups. That's damn impressive for a just-turned 22 year old 7th round goalie.
I haven't watched a ton of him playing. The numbers intrigue me and the athleticism is there. But in my limited viewings, I haven't liked his patience or positioning. But again, this is based on a very limited sample of actually watching him. I wish he was a bit taller, but his size doesn't concern me.
With all that said, demonstrating that you can be "the guy" over 40+ games in a season at the pro level is a major, major milestone for my ranking/evaluation of goaltending prospects. Preferably I want to see a goalie prospect do it over 50+ games in a year, but 40 is kind of my cutoff to start demonstrating an ability to handle a starter's workload. There are only a small handful of goalie prospects that I view as having separated themselves from the pack in their teens and early 20s before they hit this milestone.
I like what I've seen out of Zherenko as a whole, but he hasn't shown me anything (yet) to have him as one of the truly elite talents under 23. He should be the guy in the AHL this year and I'm really excited for that. He could shoot up my rankings with a good season, just like Hofer did for me this year.