Prospect Info: 2014 Flyers prospect ranking: #8

[daynus]

this one was tough

could have gone leir, local kid. i see him as a 3rd line two way player.

alt, 3rd pairing dman. a good one though.

friedman was my vote. i feel his upside is 2nd pairing dman, 2nd pp unit guy. pretty much a clone of ghost.

and lindblom a pain to play against. this guy is tough,has an edge to his game. a potential power forward for us. if he improves his skating, we could have ourselves a steal.

 

[tymed]

Leier I think in time will be a serviceable NHLer. I don't how long from now, but I am confident that he can be a bottom six guy at some point. Didn't he play on a line with Laughton on the WJC team? How was their chemistry? Maybe a future third line of Leier-Laughton-Raffl in a couple years could be a thing?

Laughton played mostly on the 3rd line in a shutdown role. He was briefly put up on 2nd to try sparking an anemic offence on a couple of occasions but the team had little chemistry and seamingly no plan from the get go. Most of the time he was paired with checkers. Leier was in and out of the lineup, I think he missed out on a couple of games and a bunch of shifts in them too. He wasn't doing a bad team any favors but he only saw scoring minutes at ES and those lines amounted to nothing altogether. He and Laughton both did well with the PK time they got. Laughton was one of the only players on Canada able to fulfill the role that was given to him. Leier should have been used with Laughton or lower.

I go with Leier here for the 3x.

 

[dats81]

Lindblom and Friedman both have good upside and may climb the rankings soon but for now I have to go with the more proven T.Leier.

Akeson and Alt appear to be AHL/NHL tweeners and personally I'm not sold on them having a long NHL career.

 

[Appleyard]

This time 4 years ago it was something like this:

1. Joacim Eriksson, G (#1 upside)
2. Sergei Bobrovsky, G (#1 upside)
3. Patrick Maroon, LW (2nd line upside)
4. Kevin Marshall, D (#4 upside)
5. Joonas Lehtivuori, D (#4 upside)
6. Andreas Nodl, RW (3rd line upside)
7. Marc-Andre Bourdon, D (#5 upside)
8. Oskars Bartulis, D (#5 upside)
9. Erik Gustafsson, D (#4 upside)
10. Eric Wellwood, LW (3rd line upside)
11. Simon Bertilsson, D (#5 upside)
12. Stefan Legein, RW (2nd line upside but 0 chance of getting there)
13. Mike Testwuide, RW (4th line upside)
14. Michael Chaput, C (3rd line upside)
15. Luke Pither, C (AHL upside)
16. Nicola Riopel, G (AHL upside)
17. Jon Kalinski, C (AHL upside)
18. Adam Morrison, G (AHL upside)
19. Andrei Popov, RW (was never coming over)
20. Dave Labrecque, C (AHL upside)

Interesting actually... 9 of the top 10 actually played in the NHL!

And 11 of the top 20 played in the NHL.

Akeson is also about as good a prospect comparatively as Maroon at that time in terms of points projections at NHL level from OHL and AHL at a similar age. Though Maroons size got him swooned about more.

Akeson last OHL season: 1.61 PPG
Maroon last OHL season: 1.41 PPG

Akeson 1st 3 AHL seasons: 172 points in 208 games (0.83 PPG)
Maroon 1st 3 AHL seasons: 154 points in 213 games (0.72 PPG)

Now Maroon was 9 months younger in his development at a similar point... but still.

 

[BrimFullofAsham45]

This time 4 years ago it was something like this:

1. Joacim Eriksson, G (#1 upside)
2. Sergei Bobrovsky, G (#1 upside)
3. Patrick Maroon, LW (2nd line upside)
4. Kevin Marshall, D (#4 upside)
5. Joonas Lehtivuori, D (#4 upside)
6. Andreas Nodl, RW (3rd line upside)
7. Marc-Andre Bourdon, D (#5 upside)
8. Oskars Bartulis, D (#5 upside)
9. Erik Gustafsson, D (#4 upside)
10. Eric Wellwood, LW (3rd line upside)
11. Simon Bertilsson, D (#5 upside)
12. Stefan Legein, RW (2nd line upside but 0 chance of getting there)
13. Mike Testwuide, RW (4th line upside)
14. Michael Chaput, C (3rd line upside)
15. Luke Pither, C (AHL upside)
16. Nicola Riopel, G (AHL upside)
17. Jon Kalinski, C (AHL upside)
18. Adam Morrison, G (AHL upside)
19. Andrei Popov, RW (was never coming over)
20. Dave Labrecque, C (AHL upside)

Interesting actually... 9 of the top 10 actually played in the NHL!

And 11 of the top 20 played in the NHL.

Akeson is also about as good a prospect comparatively as Maroon at that time in terms of points projections at NHL level from OHL and AHL at a similar age. Though Maroons size got him swooned about more.

Akeson last OHL season: 1.61 PPG
Maroon last OHL season: 1.41 PPG

Akeson 1st 3 AHL seasons: 172 points in 208 games (0.83 PPG)
Maroon 1st 3 AHL seasons: 154 points in 213 games (0.72 PPG)

Now Maroon was 9 months younger in his development at a similar point... but still.

This list greatly depresses me.

 

[sa cyred]

Lindblom and Friedman both have good upside and may climb the rankings soon but for now I have to go with the more proven T.Leier.

Akeson and Alt appear to be AHL/NHL tweeners and personally I'm not sold on them having a long NHL career.

Huh? Why do you think Alt will be a tweener? I can understand Akeson since he has had 3 professional season seasons, but Alt is 22 and had a great rookie season in the AHL. Sometimes I think people forget he was a 2nd round pick in 2010. Not a undrafted rookie FA.

Maybe I an just biased though since I had to watch him carry a terrible phantoms team and defense.

 

[dats81]

Huh? Why do you think Alt will be a tweener? I can understand Akeson since he has had 3 professional season seasons, but Alt is 22 and had a great rookie season in the AHL. Sometimes I think people forget he was a 2nd round pick in 2010. Not a undrafted rookie FA.

Maybe I an just biased though since I had to watch him carry a terrible phantoms team and defense.

Maybe I'm doing him wrong and he will make it.

But he got lots of time on special teams in the AHL last season since there was not much competition on the roster and still looked pretty average. He offers something in terms of mobility and size (although he does not play very physical), which is a must-have in the current NHL but all our younger draftees are pushing him carrying more defined skillsets.
Ron Hextall never mentions him when talking about the great 3 (now 4 with Sanheim included) prospects coming up on defense - not a good sign at all.

 

[sa cyred]

Maybe I'm doing him wrong and he will make it.

But he got lots of time on special teams in the AHL last season since there was not much competition on the roster and still looked pretty average. He offers something in terms of mobility and size (although he does not play very physical), which is a must-have in the current NHL but all our younger draftees are pushing him carrying more defined skillsets.
Ron Hextall never mentions him when talking about the great 3 (now 4 with Sanheim included) prospects coming up on defense - not a good sign at all.

I dont think I'd say average. He was put in those situations because the other players couldnt be trust there. Instead they trusted a rookie which I say is a plus. He is not talked about on the same level as them because he isnt. He is a step below. But his game reminds me of one that can transition well. I think a 4 is a stretch but I dont think its impossible. I can see him being a solid 5/6 and play a few games with more minutes.

Of the 40 or so games I have seen always came away impressed. I knew nothing about him before watching him play on the Phantoms. I remember a few here finally got to see him when streams were posted when Hagg and Ghost played and quite a few thought he played well. He did a good job covering Hagg's rookie mistakes as a roomie himself.

Also Prior said in THN that he was considered as top one of the callups for injuries on defense. Doesnt say much when guys like Gervias and Manning were down there but thats pretty high praise for his first season.

 

[Jack Straw]

I dont think I'd say average. He was put in those situations because the other players couldnt be trust there. Instead they trusted a rookie which I say is a plus. He is not talked about on the same level as them because he isnt. He is a step below. But his game reminds me of one that can transition well. I think a 4 is a stretch but I dont think its impossible. I can see him being a solid 5/6 and play a few games with more minutes.

Of the 40 or so games I have seen always came away impressed. I knew nothing about him before watching him play on the Phantoms. I remember a few here finally got to see him when streams were posted when Hagg and Ghost played and quite a few thought he played well. He did a good job covering Hagg's rookie mistakes as a roomie himself.

Also Prior said in THN that he was considered as top one of the callups for injuries on defense. Doesnt say much when guys like Gervias and Manning were down there but thats pretty high praise for his first season.

Same here. I think Alt plays a smart solid game, the kind that leads to a solid if unspectacular NHL career. 3rd pair with enough smarts and skating ability to play 2nd pair if needed. Could be good on the PK eventually.

Alt was my vote here (again).

 

[jd2210]

This list greatly depresses me.

Why is that? Only 15 % of the kids drafted make it to the NHL. It not like they all reach their ceiling. Actually that list isn't that bad considering that the poll was right after our 2nd consecutive year of a third round pick being our highest pick.

There is a Vezina winner on it, and several of those guys only stopped playing because of injuries.

4 Years ago we had guys in the system that didn't make this top 20 who have gone on to play NHL games- McGinn, Rinaldo and the Dane specifically. Popov is a very reliable 2 way player but he has never nor will he ever come over here.

Sibisa, JVR and would have been somewhat recent graduates to the NHL.

 

[McNasty]

I just don't see Akeson as having any hope as an NHL regular. He's not quite skilled enough for top 6 and he's not fast enough for bottom 6. Combine that with being small and questions about his defensive game and I just don't see it.

 

[StoneHands]

I also don't understand the Akeson thing. This shouldn't be a debate whether you consider a player a prospect or not. People should vote based on who is listed in this poll and who is technically a prospect, not based on your own personal definition of a prospect. Akeson has played 9 NHL games and just turned 24, that by definition is a prospect.

I get that people are high on guys like Oskar Lindblom and I pray that he turn into an NHL player but what has changed in the last 2 weeks since the draft where 137 players were taken before him? If he looks great this season and increases his stock I can see moving him up the rankings but until then, I'll remain skeptical yet hopeful for him. THe same can be said for Jesper Pettersson who I've seen people say is going to be a good NHL defenseman. Theres a reason why he's 20 and was taken in the 7th round.

Akeson has already achieved more in his professional career (AHL and NHL) than almost everyone else on left in this poll can even hope to achieve. If our 5th-7th rounders turn into great AHL players who can be called up and not look out of place, thats a great draft pick.

Voted Akeson, easily.