A few surprises creeping up in the St. Louis Blues Top 20 Rankings

[BlueOil]

If the writer left out the sentences containing stats, there'd only be a sentence or two about each player. Poorly written, lack of understanding of the players value to the team, and little, if any, first hand knowledge of these players.

 

[Meatwagon]

I'm not going to pile on the writer anymore, I think we've done enough of that. I could, along with most here, offer more insight on our prospects. For me, the rankings should be defined upfront, are we talking about the most likely to play in the NHL or are we talking about pure ceiling of the prospect, because frankly those lists would be very different:

Likely to be NHLer-Pure ceiling

1)Fabbri/Fabbri-if he doesn't get hurt he would have made this team out of camp

2) Barbashev/Barbashev-almost a lock to be a 40pt 3rd line center with on outside chance of top6 role

Then it gets really scrambled

3)Jaskin/Parayako-Both have the measureables to be difference makers, but will they actually make a difference?

4)Schmaltz/Jaskin-Same as above

5)Parayako/Schmaltz-ditto 2.0

6)Rattie/Rattie-Likely a 3rd line winger, maybe a 2nd liner in 5 years-Sharp lite.

7)Lindbohm/Binnington-was signing Bohm praises after camp, bright future

8)Binnington/Lindbohm (Goalies...who knows, could be an all-star or he could become Elliott, is he only. 3rd pairing Dman?

9)Edmundson/Vanelli

10)Vanelli/deaschaneu(sp?)

Then it gets real messy, so I'm not even going to try, but my biggest problem is that im not really sure which way the author is trying to rank them? Is it the likelihood of them making the NHL a in some fashion or are we talking about what player has the highest ceiling, because those lists would be quite different and the qualifications for their ranking would also need to be a little more consistent throughout. This post (will not call it an article) seems to follow both, and gets lost because of it.

 

[Mike Liut]

A better Sobotka?

He's bigger and stronger than Sobotka, or he will be when he's done filling out

 

[thigpen]

I could see Fabbri and Barbashev flanking Backes in a couple years, if/when Steen and Oshie price themselves off the team.

 

[PerryTurnbullfan]

I think MacEachern is in your top 10. I think you need to watch him play. Michigan State is a very defense first program. He can fly. He can shoot. He can dish the puck. He can dish out hits. He has good size. I can see him in our top 6 to 9. The tools are there. He doubled his point totals from his freshman year already.

 

[STL fan in MN]

I'd say that MacEachern is definitely climbing up the rankings. I've still seen very little of him however.

One guy I think flys under the radar is Dmitrii Sergeev. Perhaps he's forgotten about because he was a free agent signing and not a draftee? He's having a solid season in the OHL. I'd have him ranked somewhere in the 2nd half of our top-20.

I see the writer has Kurker ranked 13th. I have him ranked 32nd...out of 32. I just don't see him pulling his career back on track. I'll be happy if I'm wrong but I just don't see it with him.

 

[542365]

I would like to see Mac play. I remember many people that had seen him play before the draft were very high on him, but he kind of fell off my personal because he played a year in the USHL and didn't set the world on fire. Apparently he's made some big strides this year.

 

[Oberyn]

I could see Fabbri and Barbashev flanking Backes in a couple years, if/when Steen and Oshie price themselves off the team.

If we have to move parts of the SOB line, Backes should be the first to go.

 

[Bluesnatic27]

I would like to see Mac play. I remember many people that had seen him play before the draft were very high on him, but he kind of fell off my personal because he played a year in the USHL and didn't set the world on fire. Apparently he's made some big strides this year.

I haven't seen him play, but I had a feeling he would do well and be a rising prospect in our pool.

I made this comparison just based on what I've read, but he's sounding like Sheahan type player.