Prospect Info: 2017 HF Devils Top 25 Prospect Rankings

[Emperoreddy]

World juniors is too small a sample size to be moving prospects up or down the rankings drastically.

Also I really like Joey but no way you can rate him over McLeod right now.

Honestly Studenic should be considered for a top 5 spot so far. He is having quite the season.

 

[Unknown Caller]

World juniors is too small a sample size to be moving prospects up or down the rankings drastically.

Also I really like Joey but no way you can rate him over McLeod right now.

Honestly Studenic should be considered for a top 5 spot so far. He is having quite the season.

The World Juniors isn't the sample size for Maltsev. He was the best Russian player in the entire Canada-Russia series and has been trending up for awhile now. The World Juniors would be confirmation that he should move up the rankings. I personally have Anderson over McLeod because I think he is more of a sure thing to be an impact top 6 player. McLeod has higher overall upside and a more dynamic skillset, but Joey has less question marks and has shown an ability to contribute in every phase of the game. Personal opinion, but that's why I have Joey over McLeod right now. The margin is razor thin, so I have no issues with McLeod over Joey either. It's a 1a/1b thing, depending on what qualities you emphasize.

Studenic has put up nice numbers, but he hasn't done enough to be placed over guys like Anderson, McLeod, Quenneville, Maltsev, Boqvist, etc. He reminds me of Gignac in a lot of ways. If everything clicks he can be a player, but others have shown more so far.

 

[devilsblood]

World juniors is too small a sample size to be moving prospects up or down the rankings drastically.

Also I really like Joey but no way you can rate him over McLeod right now.

Honestly Studenic should be considered for a top 5 spot so far. He is having quite the season.

It's one of the few times we get to see these guys, we get to see multiple games, and it's a high level of competition.

I wouldn't expect a drastic change, but how could you not factor it in?

 

[HenriquesJawLine]

Here would be my Top-12 at this point in time.

1. Boqvist
2. Walsh
3. JQ
4. McLeod
5. Rykov
6. Zetterlund
7. Anderson
8. Studenic
9. Talvitie
10. Maltsev
11. Davies
12. Seney

I can't put Walsh ahead of Rykov until we see he's more than a PP guy. Rykov could become a bigger version of Orlov imo. He might even be #1 in the system for me.

 

[Zippy316]

World juniors is too small a sample size to be moving prospects up or down the rankings drastically.

Also I really like Joey but no way you can rate him over McLeod right now.

Honestly Studenic should be considered for a top 5 spot so far. He is having quite the season.

Studenic's numbers are encouraging, but if you look at his teammates, he's like the fourth or fifth leading forward scorer. His team is stacked.

Exciting for where he's picked, but not enough to put him as a top five prospect.

 

[My3Sons]

Studenic's numbers are encouraging, but if you look at his teammates, he's like the fourth or fifth leading forward scorer. His team is stacked.

Exciting for where he's picked, but not enough to put him as a top five prospect.

The slow start for Studenic skewed his numbers a bit. Throw out the slow start and maybe he shines a bit brighter?

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

World juniors is too small a sample size to be moving prospects up or down the rankings drastically.

Also I really like Joey but no way you can rate him over McLeod right now.

Honestly Studenic should be considered for a top 5 spot so far. He is having quite the season.

Studenic should be top 5 based on...how many times have you seen him? At least I give my opinions based on substantial views.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Studenic should be top 5 based on...how many times have you seen him? At least I give my opinions based on substantial views.

We established you don’t though since you have barely watched McLeod this season despite making outlandish claims.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

We established you don’t though since you have barely watched McLeod this season despite making outlandish claims.

9 of his most recent games isn't enough to make claims, you have no clue what you are talking about. It's a good thing you are here to spread your wealth of knowledge of prospects to the masses.

 

[None Shall Pass]

Lol

Turns out he may be 2nd or 3rd instead of 3rd or 4th like I said. What a terrible mistake I made!

 

[Unknown Caller]

Without going into full detail, Corey Pronman wrote today that he has debated whether Maltsev is a better center prospect for the Devils at this point than McLeod.

 

[Ripshot 43]

Without going into full detail, Corey Pronman wrote today that he has debated whether Maltsev is a better center prospect for the Devils at this point than McLeod.

Was this a negative on McLeod or Maltsev growing that much?

 

[Unknown Caller]

Was this a negative on McLeod or Maltsev growing that much?

He said it was more a credit to Maltsev’s growth as a prospect.

 

[Zippy316]

Was this a negative on McLeod or Maltsev growing that much?

Mikhail Maltsev, C, New Jersey: One thing I was thinking about was who is a better Devils center prospect: Maltsev, picked in the fourth round in 2016, or Michael McLeod, their first-round pick that year? That's mostly a credit to Maltsev's development. He's a big center with skill and vision who can make plays at both ends of the rink. He hasn't been dynamic for Russia, but he's trustworthy with the puck and its most played forward.

He also made a note in the Canada-Slovakia game that McLeod was starting to pull up and create more offense.

 

[NJDevils17]

Maltsev looks like a good player, he was impressive in both games. He reminds me of Zajac’s style a little. I’d be curious as to when he might come over. I don’t know if he has any “top 6 or I’m not coming” reservations but everything I’ve seen from scouts and stuff would contradict that.

It’s impossible to draft Russians for a host of reasons but the fact that we have 3 that look like good prospects is certainly encouraging.

On that same note - I love that we’ve gone overseas for skill recently. Adding guys like Boqvist, Bratt, Rykov, Zetterlund, etc. has been a huge boost to our prospect pool already. Not to mention Nico who, I’m sure, it took some huge guts to take over Patrick. Although he was in Halifax for (just) a year.

 

[Devils Dominion]

I haven't seen enough of Maltsev but he does have a heavy/strong skating stride.

Hopefully he can continue to progress and end up being a nice 4th round find.

He could also be another Kalinin.
Too early to know.

 

[Ripshot 43]

He said it was more a credit to Maltsev’s growth as a prospect.

Mikhail Maltsev, C, New Jersey: One thing I was thinking about was who is a better Devils center prospect: Maltsev, picked in the fourth round in 2016, or Michael McLeod, their first-round pick that year? That's mostly a credit to Maltsev's development. He's a big center with skill and vision who can make plays at both ends of the rink. He hasn't been dynamic for Russia, but he's trustworthy with the puck and its most played forward.

He also made a note in the Canada-Slovakia game that McLeod was starting to pull up and create more offense.

Thanks guys... just curious since a bunch of people seem down on McLeod this year when he just scored 100 pts last year and by all accounts carried his team on his back through the playoffs. Great to hear another prospect is developing well!

 

[Zippy316]

Thanks guys... just curious since a bunch of people seem down on McLeod this year when he just scored 100 pts last year and by all accounts carried his team on his back through the playoffs. Great to hear another prospect is developing well!

The issue with McLeod is a lot of those points just came from outworking his opponents or a clear mismatch of size/speed.

At the NHL level, he's no longer going to have that clear advantage. The question is moreso what type of offensive potential he has. His competitiveness is second to none; it's just finding out whether he's going to be a hard-working bottom-six forward with limited offense or a scoring forward.

Being picked at #12/13, you hope you see the signs of a scoring forward.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

I can't get a read on Maltsev, I believe the line is very thin between an Anisimov/Zajac type player and a Kalinen type player. His release needs to get faster to make himself a multithreat. At that size a lot of what he does will be along the boards.

 

[Devils Dominion]

The issue with McLeod is a lot of those points just came from outworking his opponents or a clear mismatch of size/speed.

At the NHL level, he's no longer going to have that clear advantage. The question is moreso what type of offensive potential he has. His competitiveness is second to none; it's just finding out whether he's going to be a hard-working bottom-six forward with limited offense or a scoring forward.

Being picked at #12/13, you hope you see the signs of a scoring forward.

Not seeing Mikey that much in juniors but the games I've watched I haven't seen him look to have elite vision, especially east -west.

Seems like he will try to force himself by defenders with stickhandling.

That can work most of the time in juniors but it will lead to numerous turnovers in the bigs

 

[MartyOwns]

my list, although some of these i admittedly pulled out of my bhole:

mcleod
walsh
JQ
anderson
boqvist
maltsev
rykov
studenic
zetterlund
talvitie