Prospect Info: //#15// HFStars 2014 Top-20

[Dr Pepper]

McKenzie.

 

[glovesave_35]

I do this crap every offseason, and I still don't ever really get an answer.

How is everybody grading here? Is this a favorite's ranking? Is this a highest ceiling list? Players you think are most NHL ready? Like their name? I never understand.

I rank based on a combination of top end potential and how likely a player is to reach it. I think a lot of people here lean more toward the potential aspect than I do. The reason I have McKenzie above some other players who are younger with a higher ceiling is because of how sure I am that Mac will have a lasting NHL career of some sort. My hope is that my method takes some of the shiny new toy element of recent drafts out of the equation.

 

[Hull Fan]

Yeah my "methodology" is a mix of ceiling, floor, and likely bust factor which is compounded by age.

So while Honka may have the highest ceiling, and that's debatable itself, he also has a higher bust factor than Klingberg because he's further from the NHL and hasn't proven anything against men.

In case of #15, McKenzie has a much lower ceiling than some of the other guys remaining but his floor is bottom six NHLer and a pretty sure bet to achieve that so it trumps his lack of elite upside to me.

 

[Primetimey*]

Yeah my "methodology" is a mix of ceiling, floor, and likely bust factor which is compounded by age.

So while Honka may have the highest ceiling, and that's debatable itself, he also has a higher bust factor than Klingberg because he's further from the NHL and hasn't proven anything against men.

In case of #15, McKenzie has a much lower ceiling than some of the other guys remaining but his floor is bottom six NHLer and a pretty sure bet to achieve that so it trumps his lack of elite upside to me.

His floor is a bottom six NHLer? How do you figure that? (Also, I consider an "NHLer" someone who plays season after season for more than 20 games a year.)

 

[glovesave_35]

His floor is a bottom six NHLer? How do you figure that? (Also, I consider an "NHLer" someone who plays season after season for more than 20 games a year.)

Until he proves me wrong, I'm going to give McKenzie the benefit of the doubt that he can be a 20+ game a year 4th liner at minimum. If someone wants to make him prove it, that's understandable.

 

[Primetimey*]

Until he proves me wrong, I'm going to give McKenzie the benefit of the doubt that he can be a 20+ game a year 4th liner at minimum. If someone wants to make him prove it, that's understandable.

I think he can, but that certainly isn't his floor.

 

[Hull Fan]

I think he can, but that certainly isn't his floor.

At this point I think it is. If Dallas didn't already have so much money tied up in bottom sixers like Horcoff and Cole then he'd be on this team from the start. Has he done it, no. But that's more about the roster than it is about him. Just like I think you can say that if Glennie goes on waivers he's sure bet to get picked up and play on someone's bottom six and if Buffalo or Calgary take a chance he might get an opportunity at top six for them to see if he's got the hands to go with his skating at the NHL level.

 

[OttMorrow]

At this point I think it is. If Dallas didn't already have so much money tied up in bottom sixers like Horcoff and Cole then he'd be on this team from the start. Has he done it, no. But that's more about the roster than it is about him. Just like I think you can say that if Glennie goes on waivers he's sure bet to get picked up and play on someone's bottom six and if Buffalo or Calgary take a chance he might get an opportunity at top six for them to see if he's got the hands to go with his skating at the NHL level.

I thought Glennie looked darn good with the scoring chances he had in the Calder Cup playoffs. His skating was maybe the best of all of the forwards on the team. I agree that if he hits the waiver wire, he's gone.

 

[Dr GLU]

The important factors to me, roughly in order:

Overall ceiling (hockey sense and skating being the main factors I focus on)
Probability of being a regular NHL player in some capability (again, hockey sense and skating are the focus, size factors here too)
Past production
NHL proximity

Basically, unless you're either a great skater and/or have very good hockey sense, I can't see you as sticking in the NHL for long. One can compensate for the other, but hockey sense is the most important attribute a player can have to me.