Athletic’s Corey Pronman ranks his top U-23 players

[Krewe]

Did you pay for the subscription initially thinking that their rankings articles were going to appease you. All rankings are complete garbage because they never take into account all of the factors that go into what an individual player does to contribute.

Seems like a particularly odd hill to die on considering The Athletic offers you far more.

odds are he was never subscribed. Athletic is absolutely worth it in my mind as a sports fan. Way higher quality of journalism than anywhere else across all sports. Sure some articles miss but the vast majority of content is high quality and not clickbait by definition

 

[roflstomper]

1.U23
2.Mattews on list.

Pick one.

 

[aufheben]

Byfield at 10 is kind of a joke when he's years away from being NHL ready

It’s a projection.

 

[aufheben]

Checking in on people that pay for The Athletic

Yeah that $1/month subscription is emptying my wallet completely.

 

[TySmith4Norris]

It’s a projection.

I understand, just seems like a reach to say someone that may or may not be a top 6 player in the NHL projects over players like Hughes or Makar that have already shown to be top pair defenseman

Byfield needs to take a step or two before he has that type of certainty imo

Just to add because I looked again and laughed, he has Sergachev towards the bottom and he already has been a huge part of a cup winning roster. How many of those guys will even be successful enough to do that once?

 

[KaseMeOutside]

Heiskanen at 14 is a total joke

 

[Namikaze Minato]

Yeah that $1/month subscription is emptying my wallet completely.

Hello, I'm Namikaze Minato and for years I have taken you to HF boards and shown you the heartbreak of posters like this, who's only mistake was being born poor.

Checking in on people that pay for The Athletic

They need your help, and for only $1 a day you can provide content, articles and rankings for these posters. Just One dollar, that's less than a cup of coffee but it can make all the difference in the world to posters on these boards.

 

[Garthinater]

1.U23
2.Mattews on list.

Pick one.

Good point.

Why is matthews (23 y.o.) on this list but not other players the same age?

 

[CycloneSweep]

Oilers rankings seem accurate at least

 

[WingsMJN2965]

Dont feel like doing more than top 10, ratings for projected full career just like Pronman

1. Auston Matthews - Potential for historic goal scoring as a C, career trajectory will depend on the trajectory of TML
2. Elias Pettersson - Plays on a solid core going forward, incredibly well rounded player, already in the top 3-5 in the league in advanced stats, Datsyuk+ potential. Could bring the first cup to VAN
3. Alexis Lafreniere - Hard to rate a '20 draftee but the comparables and projections are too good

4-7 are a classic tossup, they're more or less equal for the moment in terms of current ability and projected career potential and could shake out in any order when all is said and done. I think every single defenseman on this list will win a Norris within the next 10 years.

4. Miro Heiskanen - Best player on a cup final team. Already a mature two way game with excellent play-driving. Where can he go from here?
5. Rasmus Dahlin - Younger than the rest which doesn't favor him in comparisons, but has been historically great every year for his age.
6. Quinn Hughes - Historic rookie season, unique playstyle and gamebreaking skating has the potential for exceptional dominance and play driving from the blue line. Could be the QB of the entire team, not just the power play, in a peak Erik Karlsson way.
7. Cale Makar - Strong in all areas, but nothing on it's own screams gamebreaking. That being said, he's a surefire full-size #1D that can defend, shoot, and skate. Will likely lead the blueline of a potentially dominant squad in Colorado, if not an outright dynasty if the right pieces fall into place.
8. Quinton Byfield - Just like Laf, the scouting reports and junior play speak for themselves. I love what LAK is doing with their rebuild, and he'll be at the center of it.
9. Andrei Svechnikov - Potential to be one of the best offensive players of the generation. Just like Dahlin, he came in the league young and is only getting better every year.
10. Gabe Vilardi - Wildcard pick. I'm really high on Vilardi. He's been setback hard by injury, but looks to be no less the player he was drafted to be. Just like Byfield, he'll have all the opportunity in the world on what seems to be an excellently built Kings team. I think he'll really surprise people in his first full season. Otherwise, this spot goes to Matt Tkachuk as the known quantity.

HM: Trevor Zegras. Could easily, easily see him being anywhere from 4-10. Brilliant prospect, but for now, is just that without quite the pedigree of some of the 19-20 draftees on my top 10.

Really high on Vilardi is an understatement...

 

[CupofOil]

Tkachuk at 5 as a "special", higher than elite player seems insane to me.
He's really good but special players should be reserved for the very elite of the league, players that are likely to be in the running for big awards at some point in their career. Makar and Heiskanen are more special than Tkachuk to name a few. He'd be on the fringe top 20 of my under 23 list.

 

[TheNumber4]

Pretty dumb list. How do you have established NHLers being compared with players that have never touched NHL ice and then he's trying to use viewing in the minors and viewing in the NHL as a basis to rank these players. Completely dumb. Would not be surprised if the list was made solely to have Auston at the top for those Toronto based click bait views.

 

[Hischier and Hughes]

Pretty dumb list. How do you have established NHLers being compared with players that have never touched NHL ice and then he's trying to use viewing in the minors and viewing in the NHL as a basis to rank these players. Completely dumb. Would not be surprised if the list was made solely to have Auston at the top for those Toronto based click bait views.

The list is measuring what he thinks they end up to be

 

[Choralone]

Really high on Vilardi is an understatement...

He scored 7 points in 10 games last season and looked good doing it. He also set a new NHL record incidentally for fastest time to first NHL goal (within 10 seconds of his first shift). On the Kings board, we ranked him as our # 2 prospect behind Byfield (whereas Pronman has him behind 5th behind Byfield, Fagemo, Kaliyev, and Turcotte) . We're real high on him.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Show me that fool who would take J Hughes or Kakko over PLD.

Pronmans ratings are shit towards Columbus as always

its a projection for the future. How did PLD perform in the NHL when he was 18?

 

[Rydgar]

As a Canucks fan I'd put Hughes above Pettersson.

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

Usually, I like Pronman a lot. I was astonished how f***ing bad this list is. Seemed to me, that this article was rushed.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I'm trying to think of a time or two when Pronman was right about some "unpopular" rating and was shown to be vindicated. I can think of two really questionable "takes" of his that were dead wrong.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

He scored 7 points in 10 games last season and looked good doing it. He also set a new NHL record incidentally for fastest time to first NHL goal (within 10 seconds of his first shift). On the Kings board, we ranked him as our # 2 prospect behind Byfield (whereas Pronman has him behind 5th behind Byfield, Fagemo, Kaliyev, and Turcotte) . We're real high on him.

Taro Hirose scored 7 points in 10 games for Detroit in 18-19. Last year he couldn't stick on a Detroit roster that was frequently icing two of Filppula, Helm, and Glendening on their 2nd line.

Point is, small sample sizes are just that. Vilardi is obviously a fantastic prospect and not comparable with Hirose, but #10 among all players U23 is ridiculously optimistic for a guy who has proven very little to date. I don't think I'd even rank him Top 10 among prospects only.

 

[sabremike]

I'm trying to think of a time or two when Pronman was right about some "unpopular" rating and was shown to be vindicated. I can think of two really questionable "takes" of his that were dead wrong.

He still refuses to concede defeat over Middlestadt and actually has the marbles to rank him higher than Jack Quinn (seriously). He doesn't even have UPL ranked in our top 10. He's becoming the Skip Bayless of prospect forecasting at this point.

 

[BB88]

Heiskanen does a lot right but he doesn’t have that “wow” factor. This is probably why he is so low

Heiskanens skating is wow

 

[Islay1989]

Dont feel like doing more than top 10, ratings for projected full career just like Pronman

1. Auston Matthews - Potential for historic goal scoring as a C, career trajectory will depend on the trajectory of TML
2. Elias Pettersson - Plays on a solid core going forward, incredibly well rounded player, already in the top 3-5 in the league in advanced stats, Datsyuk+ potential. Could bring the first cup to VAN
3. Alexis Lafreniere - Hard to rate a '20 draftee but the comparables and projections are too good

4-7 are a classic tossup, they're more or less equal for the moment in terms of current ability and projected career potential and could shake out in any order when all is said and done. I think every single defenseman on this list will win a Norris within the next 10 years.

4. Miro Heiskanen - Best player on a cup final team. Already a mature two way game with excellent play-driving. Where can he go from here?
5. Rasmus Dahlin - Younger than the rest which doesn't favor him in comparisons, but has been historically great every year for his age.
6. Quinn Hughes - Historic rookie season, unique playstyle and gamebreaking skating has the potential for exceptional dominance and play driving from the blue line. Could be the QB of the entire team, not just the power play, in a peak Erik Karlsson way.
7. Cale Makar - Strong in all areas, but nothing on it's own screams gamebreaking. That being said, he's a surefire full-size #1D that can defend, shoot, and skate. Will likely lead the blueline of a potentially dominant squad in Colorado, if not an outright dynasty if the right pieces fall into place.
8. Quinton Byfield - Just like Laf, the scouting reports and junior play speak for themselves. I love what LAK is doing with their rebuild, and he'll be at the center of it.
9. Andrei Svechnikov - Potential to be one of the best offensive players of the generation. Just like Dahlin, he came in the league young and is only getting better every year.
10. Gabe Vilardi - Wildcard pick. I'm really high on Vilardi. He's been setback hard by injury, but looks to be no less the player he was drafted to be. Just like Byfield, he'll have all the opportunity in the world on what seems to be an excellently built Kings team. I think he'll really surprise people in his first full season. Otherwise, this spot goes to Matt Tkachuk as the known quantity.

HM: Trevor Zegras. Could easily, easily see him being anywhere from 4-10. Brilliant prospect, but for now, is just that without quite the pedigree of some of the 19-20 draftees on my top 10.

I'm sorry but what? Nothing he does screams game-breaking? Surely you jest?

 

[TBF1972]

Laf should be high since it’s a career projection and he was a slam dunk number one pick.

Kakko is too high for me. I still think he’ll be a really good player, but I’d probably have him in the late teens.

Both Tkachuk‘s are also a lot higher then a would have them ranked too.

jack hughes was also a slam dunk number one pick. laf is just the shinny new toy.

 

[The90]

He's not the playmaker on his line. What is so hard to understand about that?

He needs to put the shovel down lol.

 

[Namikaze Minato]

I'm sorry but what? Nothing he does screams game-breaking? Surely you jest?

Yeah, I had a great laugh at that. Also him saying Hughes had a "Historic rookie season" even though Makar won the Calder over him. Historic indeed.