Prospect Info: 2018 HFDevils Prospect Rankings #9

[Billdo]

These things always confuse me. Are we voting on who has the highest potential ceiling or who has the most attainable ceiling?

 

[Tretyak 20]

@ek93 @ZekeA

need your input here - debating currently with @Triumph over the concept that Bing players are (biasedly) ranked much lower than NCAA/CHL prospects, due to Bing's ****ty season this past year.

but specifically Mackenzie Blackwood. does he deserve to be behind said NCAA/CHL players? or is he as terrible as Triumph says, and deserves to be below even 4th round picks

Look at it the other way. Does a CHL/NCAA prospect who'se been very successful deserve to be ranked behind a lackluster AHL'er just because he hasn't yet played in the AHL?

 

[Devils731]

These things always confuse me. Are we voting on who has the highest potential ceiling or who has the most attainable ceiling?

I vote by who I’d most want in a trade.

 

[OmNomNom]

Look at it the other way. Does a CHL/NCAA prospect who'se been very successful deserve to be ranked behind a lackluster AHL'er just because he hasn't yet played in the AHL?

yes, if we consider overagers and quality of the team around them

 

[Tretyak 20]

yes, if we consider overagers and quality of the team around them

Fair enough, but if a CHL/NCAA player isn't an overager and isn't being propped up by a superior team and is performing, I see no reason to put Blackwood ahead of him simply because he's played in the AHL. I'm not as down on Blackwood as Triumph, but he simply hasn't performed well at all as a pro. Elite goaltenders can perform even on poor teams, and often make a poor team better.

 

[OmNomNom]

Fair enough, but if a CHL/NCAA player isn't an overager and isn't being propped up by a superior team and is performing, I see no reason to put Blackwood ahead of him simply because he's played in the AHL. I'm not as down on Blackwood as Triumph, but he simply hasn't performed well at all as a pro. Elite goaltenders can perform even on poor teams, and often make a poor team better.

sure, i can agree. but i'm honestly shocked that seney, walsh, and boqvist are ranked so much higher than him. seneys had a handful of AHL games and looks like he might be a steal, but boqvist and walsh? idk yet.

there was a reddit thread that appeared a few days ago, talking about peoples' experiences playing with NHLers in camps and such. a majority concurred that even AHL level players were MILES ahead of NCAA and lower league players

 

[Tretyak 20]

sure, i can agree. but i'm honestly shocked that seney, walsh, and boqvist are ranked so much higher than him. seneys had a handful of AHL games and looks like he might be a steal, but boqvist and walsh? idk yet.

there was a reddit thread that appeared a few days ago, talking about peoples' experiences playing with NHLers in camps and such. a majority concurred that even AHL level players were MILES ahead of NCAA and lower league players

The average NCAA player, not necessarily an NCAA star. I also think a lot of people are voting on perceived potential. A guy with questionable performance in the AHL probably has less perceived potential than a kid who's very successful in college. That might turn out not to be the case, but I think that's what a lot of people are basing their votes on.

 

[Triumph]

sure, i can agree. but i'm honestly shocked that seney, walsh, and boqvist are ranked so much higher than him. seneys had a handful of AHL games and looks like he might be a steal, but boqvist and walsh? idk yet.

there was a reddit thread that appeared a few days ago, talking about peoples' experiences playing with NHLers in camps and such. a majority concurred that even AHL level players were MILES ahead of NCAA and lower league players

Devils731's metric for this exercise was 'Would you trade player X for player Y' and that's generally how I do these rankings as well. I would not trade Seney, Boqvist, or Walsh for Blackwood.