Craig Button's Top 50 Affiliated Prospects List (2024)

[Hockeyville USA]

I think size isn’t an issue anymore but skating and speed are very important factors to be successful in modern NHL. Short players can find success with good speed and skating. But they need to adapt their style to the NHL. For example, Michkov plays a lot around the net in the KHL and does it successfully there, but he simply couldn’t do the same in the NHL, guys like Trouba, Zadorov and many others will destroy him.

There's also a major difference between regular season hockey where defense is optional, physicality is not apparent much of the time, game is more like a track meet versus the playoffs, which is a bit slower, grind it out, defensive, physical, attention to detail, and everyone on the ice obviously cares more. It feels more like Iowa football; gritty in the playoffs.

So while a bigger grinding style player like Ivan Barbashev doesn't have as much of an impact in the regular season and doesn't get the Twitter/HFBoards style points from the new age fans, he's extremely important in the playoffs where the game favors an old school football mentality that lines up with how he plays. It isn't usually sexy, but it tends to win in the playoffs.

The exception has been Pittsburgh (top end stars followed by fast puck possession depth and overachieving defense/goaltending) and Colorado (elite stars, puck possession monsters, deep throughout the lineup) who didn't have to be extremely physical. But everyone has to buy into playing with more bite & edge if you want to win a Cup, even if you are a bit more of a softer, skill player.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I think size isn’t an issue anymore but skating and speed are very important factors to be successful in modern NHL. Short players can find success with good speed and skating. But they need to adapt their style to the NHL. For example, Michkov plays a lot around the net in the KHL and does it successfully there, but he simply couldn’t do the same in the NHL, guys like Trouba, Zadorov and many others will destroy him.

Everyone needs to adapt. Big players have to adapt to that they have less time to control a puck and must be cleaner in their touches. Smaller players are already usually going to be efficient with their handling, if they've made it that far. Big players that are slower have to adapt physically to the speed of the NHL.

I also think the reality is that the NHL game is getting smaller and less physical as time goes by. This lends to all these players that people suggest have projection problems.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

I would call this list garbage, but I also think the very concept of one man doing this list is absurd to begin with. Impossible to track all these prospects on your own.

This is the media needing material to circulate, and Button getting an assignment to complete without the resources nor time necessary to do so.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

I would call this list garbage, but I also think the very concept of one man doing this list is absurd to begin with. Impossible to track all these prospects on your own.

This is the media needing material to circulate, and Button getting an assignment to complete without the resources nor time necessary to do so.

Button gets a lot of shit "wrong" but he's very well versed from prospects to the NHL, knowledgeable about a lot of things in the hockey world. I'm guessing Bell pays him a lot and he deserves it.

 

[Breakers]

I would call this list garbage, but I also think the very concept of one man doing this list is absurd to begin with. Impossible to track all these prospects on your own.

This is the media needing material to circulate, and Button getting an assignment to complete without the resources nor time necessary to do so.

Reminds me Hfboards members who claim to watch
Every Swedish league
Every Finnish league
Every Russian league
Every CHL league
Etc etc

Entire NHL scouting departments struggle with the sheer vastness of scouting

So I think judging his list strictly on a league and how he did in that department is the best course.

 

[Bedards Dad]

Moore nearly a PPG as freshman and isn't on his top 50

Seems impossible at this point to claim his stock has dropped after being selected #19. If anything his 29 pts in 32 games and overall play should have bolstered his standing as prospect

A good rule of thumb is, if it comes from Craig Button it's probably garbage. He tells the loudest and thinks it makes his opinion valid, when in reality random guy off the street watching hockey games everynight at home can provide better insight into the game.

 

[Kshahdoo]

I think size isn’t an issue anymore but skating and speed are very important factors to be successful in modern NHL. Short players can find success with good speed and skating. But they need to adapt their style to the NHL. For example, Michkov plays a lot around the net in the KHL and does it successfully there, but he simply couldn’t do the same in the NHL, guys like Trouba, Zadorov and many others will destroy him.

Have you seen Michkov a lot? He loves to play around the net but he isn't a power forward (lol), so while he doesn't shy away from physical plays, he still prefers to use his brain not his body. That's why he's usually all alone there with no defensemen around. And it's going to be exactly the same way in the NHL, I assure you.

 

[PAZ]

It actually makes a lot of sense because that’s the player he plays the most like, and the point stands.

Lafreniere’s game hasn’t translated but Byfield and Stutzle have? Have you missed the season Lafreniere has had? You also sound ignorant about why his first few years went the way they did, and the first couple of seasons of those players, especially Byfield. Don’t opine when you don’t know what you are talking about.

Lots of players are stylistically similar to Kucherov, very few are able to translate to the NHL because they rely on being more skilled than their competition. That gap decreases significantly in the NHL, and if the rest of the tools don't translate he'll just be another soft, perimeter player. I like how you act like a prospect pundit, yet all you do is post on a hockey forum - which surprisingly, is the point of a forum, to voice opinions and thoughts.

I guess if you're happy with Lafreniere having 35 pts in 57 games and looking like a complimentary top 6 piece than a driver, sure. So just to be clear, you'd still take Lafreniere over Byfield and Stutzle?

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Lots of players are stylistically similar to Kucherov, very few are able to translate to the NHL because they rely on being more skilled than their competition. That gap decreases significantly in the NHL, and if the rest of the tools don't translate he'll just be another soft, perimeter player. I like how you act like a prospect pundit, yet all you do is post on a hockey forum - which surprisingly, is the point of a forum, to voice opinions and thoughts.

Find me the list of players that led the NCAA in scoring at age 18 after setting the single season points record at the NTDP the prior season.

I guess if you're happy with Lafreniere having 35 pts in 57 games and looking like a complimentary top 6 piece than a driver, sure. So just to be clear, you'd still take Lafreniere over Byfield and Stutzle?

Moving the goalposts. You said his game hasn’t translated. Lafreniere is on pace for 50 points and gets very little PP time.

Also, Byfield had a worse perception prior to the season. So now because he’s getting a bigger role you are going to memory hole the prior seasons? He’s a good player and good for him that he’s now playing line 1/2 and PP1, but Lafreniere isn’t getting that. Let’s see what happens when he does, and you’d be forgetting the prior seasons to this one to claim you’d take Byfield ahead.

I don’t argue Stuetzle’s point totals advantage. There’s no way of knowing whether he or Byfield would do better than Lafreniere on the Rangers, but he definitely wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity he did with the Senators. Thats why I’ll defer to the consensus 1OA, and instead direct my ire at the Rangers for how they’ve handled him and Kakko as opposed to them. Seems to me any player in these situations would’ve faced a similar fate.

 

[hohosaregood]

Hfboards: not sure about Gauthiers hockey IQ

Talent scouts: Gauthier has elite hockey sense

I feel like the concern is more about his offensive game from what I've watched. He's not particularly creative so there's a limit to his upside and he lets his temper get to him so he'll take some dumb penalties.

 

[AlexGretzchenvid]

It actually makes a lot of sense because that’s the player he plays the most like, and the point stands.

Lafreniere’s game hasn’t translated but Byfield and Stutzle have? Have you missed the season Lafreniere has had? You also sound ignorant about why his first few years went the way they did, and the first couple of seasons of those players, especially Byfield. Don’t opine when you don’t know what you are talking about.


Why no way?

Would you say the same about Hutson?

I’d say that after watching Hutson play, he does have some translatable skills but if you watch his goals, most of them are flubs. His shot is particularly strong so he’s going to have to depend on his passing skills and deception to open up holes.

There are just skills in these two specifically that look like they won’t translate unless a lot of work is done.

 

[Frobbo]

Find me the list of players that led the NCAA in scoring at age 18 after setting the single season points record at the NTDP the prior season.


Moving the goalposts. You said his game hasn’t translated. Lafreniere is on pace for 50 points and gets very little PP time.

Also, Byfield had a worse perception prior to the season. So now because he’s getting a bigger role you are going to memory hole the prior seasons? He’s a good player and good for him that he’s now playing line 1/2 and PP1, but Lafreniere isn’t getting that. Let’s see what happens when he does, and you’d be forgetting the prior seasons to this one to claim you’d take Byfield ahead.

I don’t argue Stuetzle’s point totals advantage. There’s no way of knowing whether he or Byfield would do better than Lafreniere on the Rangers, but he definitely wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity he did with the Senators. Thats why I’ll defer to the consensus 1OA, and instead direct my ire at the Rangers for how they’ve handled him and Kakko as opposed to them. Seems to me any player in these situations would’ve faced a similar fate.

 

[Frobbo]

Here is a list of the ten top freshman scorers in NCAA history. Paul Kariya (100 pts, GP won't come anywhere close to that), George McPhee, Greg Whyte, Kevin Maxwell, Mark Johnson, Frank Chiarelli, Tom Rost, Troy Murray, Scot Brown and Ben Lebeau. Not exactly a murderers row. You put so much stock on Ncaa freshman scoring but its pedigree is meh.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Here is a list of the ten top freshman scorers in NCAA history. Paul Kariya (100 pts, GP won't come anywhere close to that), George McPhee, Greg Whyte, Kevin Maxwell, Mark Johnson, Frank Chiarelli, Tom Rost, Troy Murray, Scot Brown and Ben Lebeau. Not exactly a murderers row. You put so much stock on Ncaa freshman scoring but its pedigree is meh.

How many of them were 18 as freshmen?

Also, NCAA pre-1990's had crazy scoring that is not comparable to what it's like currently.

 

[WeThe North]

No David Goyette is laughable. Was he helped by Hockey Canada to make the list ? Lol Definitely flying under the radar…

 

[scoutman1]

Wow this list is terrible...some pretty big omissions and very bad rankings, looks like he rushed it out without putting much thought into it