Taking a look at their criteria for skaters eligibility...
"A skater no longer qualifies as an NHL prospect if he has played 25 games in the NHL in any campaign, regular season and playoffs combined, or 50 games total; or reaches age 27 by Sept. 15"
lol this is so random. The 50 games makes some sense but the 25 doesn't. It really isn't enough games to determine what a prospect could become at the NHL level. Nick Paul played 24 games in 2015-16, 1 more game and he would have been considered "graduated"? Yeah, doesn't work for me.
Also, 27 is a bit "old"considering hockey players primes nowadays, the 25 y/o benchmark of the hold HF criterias makes more sense. Really, haven't seen any prospects eligibility criterias that come close to the old HF ones.
I see a lot of people focus on that tier 1 but like the article states, most teams don’t even have one. The teams who do are the ones who drafted high very recently but most of the time, this type of prospects only stay there very shortly. Which prospects are currently in a tier 1? Hugues and Kakko? Don't think guys like Gusev, Hayton, Glass, Makar and Q. Hugues are in tier 1. Chabot was a beast in junior and just considered tier 2. Tkachuk was a 4th OA pick and also tier 2.
What is important is tier 2 and tier 3. Having 9 guys in tier 2 and 6 more in tier 3 is amazing. Even looking at tier 4, I see 3 guys who could jump in tier 2/3 this year in Crookshank, Tychonick and Gruden
Plus, their criterias make Wolanin and Balcers not eligible, 2 guys that would most likely be in tier 2. Laoie and Jaros aren't there either, 2 more guys in at least tier 3. Plus Paul possible tier 3/4
But yeah, "overrated pool"
That being said, HW need a tier between 2 and 3, guys that were talked about like Chabot, Batherson, Tkachuk, Marner, Nylander, etc are in a tier above guys like Formenton and Gustvasson for example. I think they'd need more tiers overall, at least 7
It could/should be more like that :
Tier 1 (blue-chip elite players, not many end up in that tier) : none
Tier 2 (high end prospects, most likely 1st line/1st pairing) : Batherson, Brannstrom
Tier 3 (very good prospects, most likely top-6/top-4) : Brown, Norris, Bernard-Docker, Thomson
Tier 4 (good prospects, most likely top-9/top-6) : Wolanin, Balcers, Søgaard, Formenton, Davidsson, Jaros, Gustavsson, Abramov, Chlapik, Daccord, Pinto, Lajoie
Tier 5 (decent prospects, could become NHL players but most likely in a role or their upside remains uncertain at the moment) : Hogberg, Crookshank, Gruden, Tychonick, Paul, Veronneau, Kelly, Alsing
Tier 6 (too early too say/most likely depth players) : Carcone, Mandolese, Nurmi, Guénette, Kastelic, Klimchuk, Englund, Loheit
Tier 7 (too late/almost no chance) : Beaudin, Burgess, Novak, Sturtz, Lodin
Like mentioned on HW, players can move around in tiers. I think Crookshank and Gruden move on to tier 4 this year, Guenette, Kastelic and Mandolese to tier 5. Can anyone moved from tier 4 to tier 3? Pinto or Sogaard maybe?