Nah, your question peaked my own curiosity to really look into this. And while I don't have the time for a really deep dive, I'll share my initial thoughts after a little bit of research (don' be fooled, this is going to be a long post).
First off, I made two groups out of it since it is still very early and difficult to evaluate the kids born in 05, 06 and 07.
About my approach:
I did not just look at the best players from each year regardless of position, but I wanted to take depth and balance into account as well. So I looked at the best 6 forwards, 3 defensemen and 1 goalie from each year and compared how they match up.
Since there is a lot more clarity on the older players than on the younger one, I tried to take into account how I viewed them back when they were in their draft years. I am not sure how well I managed this.
Based on this approach I would rank 2000-2004 like this:
1. 2002:
Obvious choice. A little weaker in goal, and defense is only very good, but not great, but the forwards are just insane
2. 2000:
After a clear gap the next three are fairly close. Despite Bokk not living up to his hype (he was still pretty good) their forward group was fairly solid and the defense was not as bad as I had originally feared. Also Hane was and is a solid goalie
3. 2004:
This was difficult, since I have looked far more closely into a lot of 2004 players than any of the other years, which might skew my perspective in their favor a bit. Lutz is really good and the depth behind him is not terrible. The defense looks pretty bad, but there could be a couple ofgood goalies.
4. 2001:
This was also really tricky for one reason, because frankly 2001 sucked for the most part. The forward group was underwhelming and the defense was Seider and well, that's about it. Of course Seider alone is almost good enough to lift this group past 2004 and possibly 2000. And Ancicka is a good goalie as well, but in the end I still ended up ranking them 4th because there is just no balance.
5. 2003:
Just like 2002 was the obvious number 1, 2003 is the obvious number 5. There are a couple decent forwards (Proske, Hänelt, Roßmy), but nothing on defense. Even a goalie with lots of potential like Quapp cannot make up for that, not even close.
So, now for the upcoming ones:
I really like 2005 and 2006 (especially 2005), but I don't have a good read on 2007 yet, so I am not really sure where to put them. For now the ranking of these three vintages is:
1. 2005
2. 2006
3. 2007
But this could change once I get more viewings of these kids, in particular the 2007 ones.
If I were to take a guess at a combined ranking this would be it:
1. 2002
2. 2005
3. 2006
4. 2000
5. 2004
6. 2001
7. 2007
8. 2003
2005 looks pretty good right now. Definitely not 2002 level good, but good.
The defense in particular looks more promising than any recent memory with Tropmann and Mayer being the standouts.
Forwards are slightly more of a question mark. But while they still are a far cry from what 2002 had, there seems to be solid depth and guys like Vinzens, Sumpf, Ruckdäschel and Fischer still look to be as good or better than anything we have seen since the 1995 group, except of course 2002 .
Goalies are always tricky for me, but I like what I have seen so far from guys like Willerscheid and Pertuch.
2006 appears to be more balanced but still weaker at every position than 2005. So there is a clear gap and I was not entirely sure if I should rank them just ahead of 2000 or just behind.
The forward position has decent depth and I like Seeger and Herzog in particular.
On defense the situation seems similar. I am very intrigued by Rio Kaiser and there are some others that look promising so far, but no real stand outs.
In goal Erik Eder was one of my early favorites, but I really don't know enough about this goalie class yet, to give a good evaluation.
2007 I am really not comfortable making any predictions about this class.
Among forwards I like Kessler and Späth and there are bunch of others that I am very curious about. This could very well turn into one of the better forward groups, but it is too soon to tell.
On defense I have really only one player that I am somewhat confident will turn into a decent prospect (Carlos Händel), but it is too soon to write the others off, especially since there a still a lot of them I have not even seen once.
As far as goalies born in 2007 are concerned I can honestly say, that I don't even know anything about them. I have no idea who is the head of the class so to speak, so that's that.
To anybody who has bothered to read this all the way through. Thank you, and I am impressed.
