Prospect Info: HFAvs Prospect Ranking Polls 2022 - Main Thread

[McMetal]

Hey everyone, it's time once again to do our prospect pool rankings! The pool may be significantly thinner this year, but we're going to go down the list. Polls will drop every other day, I propose we go just to 20 ranks this year, as we only have 22 eligible prospects to rank. This thread will have the rankings so far.

Position	Player	Draft	2022 Rank	2021 Rank	Change
D	Sean Behrens	2021 #61	1 (49.5%)	9	+8
RW	Oskar Olausson	2021 #28	2 (52.3%)	4	+2
C	Ben Meyers	Undrafted	3 (85.5%)	-	-
G	Justus Annunen	2018 #64	4 (50.0%)	10	+6
C	Jean-Luc Foudy	2020 #75	5 (76.9%)	7	+2
RW	Martin Kaut	2018 #16	6 (46.4%)	5	-1
LW	Sampo Ranta	2018 #78	7 (65.1%)	8	+1
C	Colby Ambrosio	2020 #118	8 (41.8%)	14	+6
C	Matthew Stienburg	2019 #63	9 (48.5%)	23	+14
RW	Alex Beaucage	2019 #78	10 (43.9%)	15	+5
D	Daniil Zhuravlyov	2018 #202	11 (40.5%)	16	+5
C	Andrei Buyalski	2021 #92	12 (40.5%)	18	+6
C	Shane Bowers	2017 #28 (TR)	13 (40.0%)	13	-1
D	Chris Romaine	2022 #193	14 (33.3%)	-	-
G	Ivan Zhigalov	2022 #225	15 (41.7%)	-	-
RW	Nikolai Kovalenko	2018 #171	16 (46.7%)	14	-2
D	Nick Leivermann	2017 #187	17 (35.0%)	21	+4
G	Trent Miner	2019 #202	18 (35.0%)	19	+1
C	Taylor Makar	2021 #220	19 (57.7%)	24	+5
LW	Tyler Weiss	2018 #109	20 (85.0%)	20	+0

For reference, here is the complete list of prospects eligible for the polls this year:

Colby Ambrosio
Justus Annunen
Alex Beaucage
Sean Behrens
Shane Bowers
Andrei Buyalsky
Jean-Luc Foudy
Martin Kaut
Nikolai Kovalenko
Nick Leivermann
Taylor Makar
Ben Meyers
Trent Miner
Oskar Olausson
Sampo Ranta
Christopher Romaine
Shamil Shmakov
Matthew Stienburg
Tyler Weiss
Ivan Zhigalov
Daniil Zhuravlyov

Removed from last year: Nils Åman (Released), Justin Barron (Traded), Bowen Byram (Graduated), Nate Clurman (Age Out), Drew Helleson (Traded), Nick Henry (Released), Mikhail Maltsev (Age Out), Alex Newhook (Graduated), Andreas Wingerli (Released)

Last year's results:

Position	Player	Draft	2021 Rank	2020 Rank	Change
D	Bowen Byram	2019 #4	1 (96.4%)	1	0
C	Alex Newhook	2019 #16	2 (99.1%)	2	0
D	Justin Barron	2020 #25	3 (89.2%)	5	+2
RW	Oskar Olausson	2021 #28	4 (43.3%)	-	-
RW	Martin Kaut	2018 #16	5 (31.8%)	3	-2
D	Drew Helleson	2019 #47	6 (40.5%)	10	+4
C	Jean-Luc Foudy	2020 #75	7 (34.9%)	8	+1
LW	Sampo Ranta	2018 #78	8 (58.4%)	11	+3
D	Sean Behrens	2021 #61	9 (63.7%)	-	-
G	Justus Annunen	2018 #64	10 (46.5%)	6	-4
C	Mikhail Maltsev	2016 #102 (TR)	11 (59.8%)	-	-
C	Shane Bowers	2017 #28 (TR)	12 (34.6%)	7	-5
C	Colby Ambrosio	2020 #118	13 (34.6%)	14	+1
RW	Nikolai Kovalenko	2018 #171	14 (43.2%)	9	-5
RW	Alex Beaucage	2019#78	15 (62.8%)	13	-2
D	Daniil Zhuravlyov	2018 #146	16 (33.8%)	15	-1
C	Andreas Wingerli	Undrafted	17 (49.0%)	-	-
C	Andrei Buyalski	2021 #92	18 (66.0%)	-	-
G	Trent Miner	2019 #202	19 (49.0%)	-	+7
LW	Tyler Weiss	2018 #109	20 (58.5%)	21	+1
D	Nick Leivermann	2017 #187	21 (56.8%)	20	-1
D	Nate Clurman	2016 #161	22 (32.7%)	22	0
C	Matthew Stienburg	2019 #63	23 (32.7%)	17	-6
C	Taylor Makar	2021 #220	24 (76.0%)	-	-
RW	Nick Henry	2017 #94	25 (50.0%)	19	-6

Click to read more...

 

[UncleRisto]

We won the Cup, though.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

Looks like votes in the top 10 will be all over the place.

 

[Hasbro]

The cubbard.

 

[Richard88]

Looks like Behrens was ranked way too low last year, as a couple of posters said at the time.

 

[Richard88]

Would have been nice to get at least one NHLer out of the Kaut, Ranta, and Bowers trio by now. Hopefully Foudy and/or Olausson can buck the trend.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Is Ben Meyers, who we signed as a UFA and was immediately inserted into the NHL roster, actually considered a prospect for this poll?

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

One of my favourite off-season threads.

We’ll have to dig pretty deep this year with the pool thinning. Thanks for spearheading @McMetal

 

[henchman21]

Is Ben Meyers, who we signed as a UFA and was immediately inserted into the NHL roster, actually considered a prospect for this poll?

We ranked Kerfoot.... badly, but we ranked him! When we sign Sammy Walker and Cole Guttman, we should rank them too!

 

[expatriatedtexan]

We ranked Kerfoot.... badly, but we ranked him! When we sign Sammy Walker and Cole Guttman, we should rank them too!

Touche!

 

[McMetal]

Is Ben Meyers, who we signed as a UFA and was immediately inserted into the NHL roster, actually considered a prospect for this poll?

The criterion are less than 24 years of age and less than 65 NHL games played, so he technically counts under the rules we've been using so far (barely). I'm putting him in for consistency's sake since we've ranked similar players before.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

The criterion are less than 24 years of age and less than 65 NHL games played, so he technically counts under the rules we've been using so far (barely). I'm putting him in for consistency's sake since we've ranked similar players before.

Ah yes....I knew that at one time.

 

[Shane Diesel]

Behrens
Olaussen
Meyers
Who cares
2022 Cup Champs

 

[McMetal]

I'm a little surprised by how much consensus there was here inside the top 10. Five out of ten (six if you count Behrens, who was close) won with at least 50% of the vote, and nobody had less than 40% vote share. I expected a lot of risers given the vacuum at the top of the pool from graduations and trades, but I also expected a lot of close races and diverging opinions. It seems that even with how shallow the pool is we all have roughly the same ideas about the rankings.

 

[UnkleKraker]

The cubbard.

Is

 

[McMetal]

The polls are done! Thanks to everybody who participated, especially down to the bitter end.

Mods, you can unpin this thread now, I've got the final rankings put up in a new prospect thread for 22/23.