The Athletic Corey Pronman - Buffalo Has the Top Farm System and It Isn’t Really Close

[debaser66]

this is the best prospect pool since I am watching (2004)
nothing even close expect when we drafted Eichel.

 

[debaser66]

I don't get what you mean

he forgot the word "top" I guess

 

[JFA87-66-99]

Buffalo right now has one of the best/deepest prospect pools I can ever remember. Off hand gotta say some of the best pools I can remember would be Edmonton (early 1980's), Quebec or Colorado (early 1990's), Pittsburgh (mid 2000's), and probably Winnipeg (mid 2010's). Could Buffalo (late 2010's) possibly be added?

 

[Aladyyn]

this is the best prospect pool since I am watching (2004)
nothing even close expect when we drafted Eichel.

And I don't remember anyone complaining about our prospect pool ranking in summer 2015 because our top guy was making the NHL.

 

[joshjull]

And I don't remember anyone complaining about our prospect pool ranking in summer 2015 because our top guy was making the NHL.

Yep. We should enjoy this. Its not like we’ve had a lot to be happy about in Sabreland the last several years.

Then in a year from now we can see where Pronman puts our prospects pool and debate that.

 

[joshjull]

I don't get what you mean

I believe he’s saying that if every prospect pool had its best prospect removed and what remained for each team were ranked. We would be 5th overall.

 

[joshjull]

Why anyone should be applauding a GM for a draft, in which the total NHL games played between all picks is 6 games, is beyond me. Bottom line is it’s still too early. Mitts was a fairly easy selection and after that no one else is close to sniffing the NHL. Mitts seems like a fairly safe bet to make it but if he is the only one from this draft to do so I would call it a disappointment.

The 3 first rounders next year will be huge though, especially the STL and SJS ones as they will most likely be late firsts. I would call a draft successful if you get two NHLers out of it and next year our chances of that are much higher. Hitting on top 10 picks is much easier then 11-31 and the rounds that follow. I’ll applaud him when he starts hitting on those.

Its not hard to understand why someone would be overly excited about Mitts and piggyback that into praise for Botts’s drafting. Particularly in light of Murray’s 8th overall pick of Nylander and passing on Sergachev as the poster referenced. Its premature praise but I get it. We have a few years to go before we can properly evaluate Botts drafting acumen.

 

[Sabre the Win]

Yep. We should enjoy this. Its not like we’ve had a lot to be happy about in Sabreland the last several years.

Then in a year from now we can see where Portman puts our prospects pool and debate that.

I would think we stay in the top 5 if we add those 3 first rounders. So yeah it will be exciting to see once Dahlin and Middlestadt graduate how our pipeline looks and rates.

It feels good to have 2 of the top 5 prospects in the entire NHL coming to play in Buffalo this year. I even rate Middlestadt higher than Petersson for the simple fact Petersson played wing in the SHL while getting those points and Vancouver is hoping he becomes their 1C whereas Middlestadt has been playing center and could be 1C material in a 2C role for Buffalo.

The potential is there.

 

[Aladyyn]

I would think we stay in the top 5 if we add those 3 first rounders. So yeah it will be exciting to see once Dahlin and Middlestadt graduate how our pipeline looks and rates.

It feels good to have 2 of the top 5 prospects in the entire NHL coming to play in Buffalo this year. I even rate Middlestadt higher than Petersson for the simple fact Petersson played wing in the SHL while getting those points and Vancouver is hoping he becomes their 1C whereas Middlestadt has been playing center and could be 1C material in a 2C role for Buffalo.

The potential is there.

For the second time in 4 seasons.

 

[missingmika]

this is the best prospect pool since I am watching (2004)
nothing even close expect when we drafted Eichel.

This was Hockey's Future 2005 rankings:

Top Prospects

1. Ryan Miller, G

2. Thomas Vanek, LW

3. Derek Roy, C

4. Jason Pominville, RW

5. Drew Stafford, RW

6. Daniel Paille, LW

7. Clarke MacArthur, LW

8. Paul Gaustad, C

9. Denis Ezhov, D

10. Chris Thorburn, C

11. Nathan Paetsch, D

12. Michael Funk, D

13. Denis Denisov, D

14. Artem Kriukov, C

15. Branislav Fabry, RW

16. Milan Bartovic, LW

17. Andrej Sekera, D

18. Michael Ryan, RW

19. Michal Valent, G

20. Dylan Hunter, C

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

That's a pretty deep class (they were ranked 14th at the time). Almost everyone had some decent NHL time except for the Russians who both had good Russian careers.

 

[missingmika]

Our 1999 prospects weren't too shabby. Miller at 25, Peters at 27, Kotalik at 30!!!

Top 34 Prospects
1. Cory Sarich D
2. Martin Biron G
3. Maxim AfinogenovRW
4. Dimitri Kalinin D
5. J-L Grand-Pierre D
6. Brian Campbell D
7. Henrik Tallinder D
8. Mika Noronen G
9. Norm Milley RW
10.Jaroslav Kristek RW
11.Barrett Heisten LW
12.Milan Bartovic RW
13.Darren Van Oene LW
14.Doug Janik D
15.Mike Zigomanis C
16.Matt Davidson RW
17.Mike Pandolfo RW
18.Denis Hamel LW
19.Luc Theoret D
20.Brad Moran C
21.Karel Mosovsky LW
22.Francois Methot C
23.Tim Preston LW
24.Aaron Goldade C
25.Ryan Miller G
26.Kamil Piros C
27.Andrew Peters LW
28.Bret Dececco RW
29.Matthew Kinch D
30.Ales Kotalik W
31.Seneque HyacintheLW
32.Edo Terglav RW
33.Brad Self C
34.Craig Brunel RW

 

[jc17]

These old lists are fun to see.

We should get all of them in one place to serve as a reminder that every "top 10" prospect isn't a lock, and that lower tier guys can show up.

 

[debaser66]

This was Hockey's Future 2005 rankings:

Top Prospects

1. Ryan Miller, G

2. Thomas Vanek, LW

3. Derek Roy, C

4. Jason Pominville, RW

5. Drew Stafford, RW

6. Daniel Paille, LW

7. Clarke MacArthur, LW

8. Paul Gaustad, C

9. Denis Ezhov, D

10. Chris Thorburn, C

11. Nathan Paetsch, D

12. Michael Funk, D

13. Denis Denisov, D

14. Artem Kriukov, C

15. Branislav Fabry, RW

16. Milan Bartovic, LW

17. Andrej Sekera, D

18. Michael Ryan, RW

19. Michal Valent, G

20. Dylan Hunter, C

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

That's a pretty deep class (they were ranked 14th at the time). Almost everyone had some decent NHL time except for the Russians who both had good Russian careers.

It contains actually 2 classes because of the 04/05 lockout, thx for the list..was actually my first season.

 

[krt88nc]

The Athletic is DEAD wrong here. Counting Two players that’ll never play on the farm as part of the farm system is a joke!

Try finding a team that has success with their farm system in terms of wins and players developed. Who has developed via Rochester and become a star in the past 5 years?

 

[TheMistyStranger]

The Athletic is DEAD wrong here. Counting Two players that’ll never play on the farm as part of the farm system is a joke!

Try finding a team that has success with their farm system in terms of wins and players developed. Who has developed via Rochester and become a star in the past 5 years?

That’s more of a point on semantics than anything. Farm in this case means prospects. Same way HF used to do it.

 

[Chainshot]

Different rating individuals will have a different take on what they value. Pronman's definitely got a preference for stick skills and foot speed, flair if you will. It's hard to look past the flash they have with Mitts and Dahlin, even if the meat of their pool are more "just a guy" players like Asplund, Davidsson, Borgen, Samuelsson and the like.