Hockey's Future Top 50 Prospects Spring 2006

[Leaf Army]

NHL results > Everything else !

So then you agree that Perezhogin's spot at number 34 should go to Kyle Wellwood?

 

[DaveG]

It's funny, because that's the exact opposite thing that the Team Radio play by play and colour guys for their national World Junior Championships broadcast said when they told me in the media centre in Vancouver that they relied upon Hockey's Future to provide them with background information for the tournament.

trust me, it's much appriciated by the vast majority of the sites readers, even if there are times that we disagree.

the thing I really don't understand (and I know I'll take some flak for this since I've done a bit of it myself before, mostly about Kahnberg being left off) is the people that are complaining without giving any kind of constructive criticism. Even worse are those outright attacking the site itself, just my opinion though.

 

[Jeffrey]

So then you agree that Perezhogin's spot at number 34 should go to Kyle Wellwood?

As you which !
I don't care !
wellwood is better right now but I do beleive in the longrun perezhogin will outperform wellwood by a wide margin !

 

[Metallian*]

NHL results > Everything else !

then i'm banking on Vorobiev making the list if thats the case

 

[Complaining Customer]

This site is a joke

+1

News flash : you are here.
Question : why?
I'm pretty sure there is a metal music board somewhere.

As for the list, I will ask my question again cause I don't see any answer to it. How far was Penner from making the top-50, anyone considered him or is he a consensus "last-part-of-the-top100" guy?

 

[Roy G Biv*]

News flash : you are here.
Question : why?
I'm pretty sure there is a metal music board somewhere.

+1

I challenge all the whiners to go make their own list.

 

[Checker*]

I'm here because I'm a hockey fan and the information provided by some posters is informative. Unfortunately, the majority here don't know a damn thing about anyone affiliated with the St. Louis Blues organization or is clearly biased against them. Carey Price makes the list, and for what reason exactly? Not being good enough to make the Canadian team, subpar numbers? Meanwhile TJ Oshie who is turning heads at UND and was one of the top Americans in the tournament is conveniently left out. BULL****. I guess it's easier to deal with a few Blues fans who actually care and know what they're talking about than the hoards of ignorant Canadian fans that would cry foul should Price be left out. That's sad and pathetic.

 

[Jeffrey]

Everybody in this thread or this board whatsoever should take a big breath and relax a little bit !
this ranking is for fun and it's really not a science !
you guys should know that draft ranking indeed affect any other ranking !
and for each draft you could find maybe approximately 100 players that should have been drafted higher or instead of another player .. some player could be draft in round 7 and become a superstar while a 1st overall pick could turn into a huge bust !
same goes with the ranking at hockeysfuture! if you go check some old ranking you'll see some funny stuff !
sure there's case that can be made but stop nitpicking about some players ...
as for the rask,pogge vs price leafs propanganda I would defend the selection of price !
1st price made the list at 47 so it's not like he's top 10 prospect or whatever !
also pogge is year older and Price was set to make the team but suter cut him from the roster because of 1 practise issue(don't want to go in detail there)
will price make the team next year ? I can't tell but I'll say he has real good chance !
now with rask ! raks is from finland and was the clearcut favorite to take the starting job .. he was amazing at the WJC but IMO goalie can get overrated if their team perform badly same goes with team with incredible defense(see Canada) ! I would like to see price vs rask next year in the wjc ! should be a great match-up!
I also beleive that the AHL would be a good indicator !
anyway leafs always like to take shot at habs prospect.. don't tell me why !
last year it was higgins(who's looking amazing right now in the NHL) !
the fans also got kostitsyn out of this list, even if he's looking waaaay better than last year and we (habs fans) can finally see his true potential !

 

[Mandaou]

Seabrooke

I've watched a lot of Blackhawk games on Rogers sports package and Brent Seabrooke is going to be a star.

Lists are tough to compile but when said and done and after watching Seabrooke play at least 20 games, he's as good as any rookie defenseman including Phaneuf.

The comparison I use for Seabrooke is Chris Chelios and not just because he wears Chelios' #7. The guy plays a similar style including getting in people's faces a little bit. Phaneuf's comparison is a Scott Stevens clone except will offensive upside.

Both great projections and if they come true both will be superstars for many years.

 

[King'sPawn]

I'm here because I'm a hockey fan and the information provided by some posters is informative. Unfortunately, the majority here don't know a damn thing about anyone affiliated with the St. Louis Blues organization or is clearly biased against them. Carey Price makes the list, and for what reason exactly? Not being good enough to make the Canadian team, subpar numbers? Meanwhile TJ Oshie who is turning heads at UND and was one of the top Americans in the tournament is conveniently left out. BULL****. I guess it's easier to deal with a few Blues fans who actually care and know what they're talking about than the hoards of ignorant Canadian fans that would cry foul should Price be left out. That's sad and pathetic.

Dude, if you did half the work that was put in to compile the top 50 list done by this site, you wouldn't have time to think up your HF conspiracies to oppress St. Louis fans, let alone type them on a message board.

It's disappointing, and fans from every team can make cases about prospect X or Y being a top 50 prospect over prospect Z. But ultimately, the article will mean nothing if and when these prospects hit the ice. The article is a work pieced together by SEVERAL HF staff for our reading pleasure. Some won't enjoy it, and most will disagree with it in one form or another, but that's all it is.

There was once an HF article back in 2000 with Dany Heatley and Marion Gaborik being behind Kris Beech, Milan Kraft, and Pavel Brendl. It's not written to be a crystal ball.

 

[Leaf Army]

Everybody in this thread or this board whatsoever should take a big breath and relax a little bit !
this ranking is for fun and it's really not a science !

Well I can tell you what wouldn't be fun. If everyone just looked at the list and said, "yeah I agree."

as for the rask,pogge vs price leafs propanganda I would defend the selection of price !
1st price made the list at 47 so it's not like he's top 10 prospect or whatever !
also pogge is year older and Price was set to make the team but suter cut him from the roster because of 1 practise issue(don't want to go in detail there)
will price make the team next year ? I can't tell but I'll say he has real good chance !
now with rask ! raks is from finland and was the clearcut favorite to take the starting job .. he was amazing at the WJC but IMO goalie can get overrated if their team perform badly same goes with team with incredible defense(see Canada) ! I would like to see price vs rask next year in the wjc ! should be a great match-up! I also beleive that the AHL would be a good indicator !

Well I can't say I strongly disagree with any of this. I actually don't mind Price at all. I think he might be a good NHL goalie.

But nothing you just wrote justifies why Price should be considered a better prospect than either Pogge or Rask.

I'll give you reasons to justify why the Leaf prospects are better.

Pogge is perhaps the best goalie in the CHL and outperforming Price this year. Plus he beat him out of a job for Canada's WJC team and won the gold medal.

True Price is a year younger and that is significant. But is that enough to outweigh the other factors?

Rask is the same age as Price and was winning best goaltender honours at the WJC while Price sat at home. Plus he's playing against men and has better numbers then Price.

Now you give me one reason why Price should be considered better.

anyway leafs always like to take shot at habs prospect.. don't tell me why !

Here's why. We're not taking "shots" at Habs prospects.

It's just that over the past year we've constantly been hearing "oh the Habs are ranked 5th by HF. Toronto's ranked 27th".

All we do is ask that if you're going to make that claim you're able to back it up.

And it's no different in this years list. I'd love for someone to explain to me why Perezhogin is at #34 and Wellwood isn't on the list.

last year it was higgins(who's looking amazing right now in the NHL) !

No one was taking shots at Higgins. We were just asking what he's done that sets him so far ahead of Wellwood. And Wellwood's looking pretty good himself in the NHL.

 

[Complaining Customer]

I'm here because I'm a hockey fan and the information provided by some posters is informative. Unfortunately, the majority here don't know a damn thing about anyone affiliated with the St. Louis Blues organization or is clearly biased against them. Carey Price makes the list, and for what reason exactly? Not being good enough to make the Canadian team, subpar numbers? Meanwhile TJ Oshie who is turning heads at UND and was one of the top Americans in the tournament is conveniently left out. BULL****. I guess it's easier to deal with a few Blues fans who actually care and know what they're talking about than the hoards of ignorant Canadian fans that would cry foul should Price be left out. That's sad and pathetic.

You should be happy to have this extra knowledge that other people don't have and not use it to push yourself up in a position of power/arrogance. Some day this knowledge will prove usefull, who knows, you might start your own hockey site, or maybe even win a hockey pool.

Maybe Oshie went under the radar. You know, that's not really a reason to pull off your hair like that, I'm pretty sure he's fine and that he'll sleep pretty well either way. You're not building a credibility by insulting people (canadiens' fans - me?) and whining about your prospects. Make informative posts about your guys and people will get interest. If you have the knowledge you pretend you have (I personnally don't, I'm only here to ask questions), use it so when you say "Oshie", people listen. Now you say "Oshie" and we hear "bouhouhou, my prospect is being treated unfair, the habs fans would cry if..." (and by saying that, you're exactly saying : "the habs fans would do exactly what I'm doing right now if in the same position", which is not really proving that they are ignorant and you are not).

 

[Thirty One]

I guess it's easier to deal with a few Blues fans who actually care and know what they're talking about than the hoards of ignorant Canadian fans that would cry foul should Price be left out. That's sad and pathetic.

they obviously underestimated what a huge baby you are, hey?

 

[The Boot]

This is ridiculous, it happens every year with this list. People feel their prospects are being snubbed and throw a hissy fit. There are some players that i don't think get enough credit like Harding not being in the top 50 is a glaring omission in my opinion, but this list wasn't made to form to my exact opinion. In the end HF does a great job with this list every year and i would like to thank everyone involved in making it.

 

[Brandinho]

The only really blatant exclusion is Ballard. Some other guys you can argue about, but overall it's a very good list. I just cannot understand how they could possibly leave Ballard off. It makes no sense.

 

[TJF]

Well I can't say I strongly disagree with any of this. I actually don't mind Price at all. I think he might be a good NHL goalie.

But nothing you just wrote justifies why Price should be considered a better prospect than either Pogge or Rask.

I'll give you reasons to justify why the Leaf prospects are better.

Pogge is perhaps the best goalie in the CHL and outperforming Price this year. Plus he beat him out of a job for Canada's WJC team and won the gold medal.

True Price is a year younger and that is significant. But is that enough to outweigh the other factors?

Rask is the same age as Price and was winning best goaltender honours at the WJC while Price sat at home. Plus he's playing against men and has better numbers then Price.

Personally I think Rask will be better than Price but it's way to early to tell. As for Pogge big deal that he's not on the list, let's be honest here leafs fan overate him because he won the gold medal at the world juniors. As for his CHL numbers big deal he plays on a great defensive team so the numbers are inflated. Look up Gerald Coleman's junior numbers from his last few years and tell me if you think he'll become a superstar goalie.

I think Leafs fan put to much weight on the fact that he won a gold medal with team Canada when in reality one tournament does't make him the next Patrick Roy. Here are some other past gold medal winning goalies for Canada at the world juniors during the 90's.

Stephane Fiset
- Named tournament All-star
- Named goalie of the tournament
- Won Gold medal

Trevor Kidd
- Won gold medal
- Great in junior much like Pogge

Jamie Storr
- Won Gold medal
- Named goalie of the tournament

What do they all have in commen, they were all average back ups at the NHL level.

Now I'm not saying Pogge is going to be just like these guys but you shouldn't let a gold medal make you think you have a future superstar. But hey it's not all bad, the leafs have Rask to be the number 1 guy for years to come and Pogge can back him up.

 

[Teemu]

I've watched a lot of Blackhawk games on Rogers sports package and Brent Seabrooke is going to be a star.

Lists are tough to compile but when said and done and after watching Seabrooke play at least 20 games, he's as good as any rookie defenseman including Phaneuf.

The comparison I use for Seabrooke is Chris Chelios and not just because he wears Chelios' #7. The guy plays a similar style including getting in people's faces a little bit. Phaneuf's comparison is a Scott Stevens clone except will offensive upside.

Both great projections and if they come true both will be superstars for many years.

#1 defenseman aren't good enough to make the top 25

 

[David A. Rainer]

As for the list, I will ask my question again cause I don't see any answer to it. How far was Penner from making the top-50, anyone considered him or is he a consensus "last-part-of-the-top100" guy?

I'm sorry, I did not see the question. Lost amongst all the outrage over [favorite prospect] not getting any respect rants.

Well, I could tell you that he was in the 65-100 group and slightly appease all the Ducks fans. But then I would be lying to you. Penner was included in the over 160 prospects we looked at when compiling the list. But in the end, he did not garner enough attention to make it past the cut of 75. He's having a great year, no doubt about it, and it looks like the Ducks might have a good prospect on their hands. If he continues his level of play, he'll be in the NHL soon. But there are some reservations and he is up there in age. Top-end ceiling was likely a large factor.

 

[David A. Rainer]

Well I can tell you what wouldn't be fun. If everyone just looked at the list and said, "yeah I agree."

Amen brother! That's why we purposesly oppress Blues, Wild, Tampa, NCAA prospects around here. Oops! Did I just say that?

List are inexact sciences. Hell, look how often NHL organizations mess up their drafts and they are spending millions of dollars on getting it right. But for a media outlet, it is just a bunch of writers that have seen more games of a wide variety of prospects from all teams than the average fan and put together a list of observations designed to create talk and discussion. If not, we'd have nothing to talk about most of the times.

 

[Leaf Army]

Personally I think Rask will be better than Price but it's way to early to tell. As for Pogge big deal that he's not on the list, let's be honest here leafs fan overate him because he won the gold medal at the world juniors. As for his CHL numbers big deal he plays on a great defensive team so the numbers are inflated. Look up Gerald Coleman's junior numbers from his last few years and tell me if you think he'll become a superstar goalie.

I think Leafs fan put to much weight on the fact that he won a gold medal with team Canada when in reality one tournament does't make him the next Patrick Roy. Here are some other past gold medal winning goalies for Canada at the world juniors during the 90's.

Stephane Fiset
- Named tournament All-star
- Named goalie of the tournament
- Won Gold medal

Trevor Kidd
- Won gold medal
- Great in junior much like Pogge

Jamie Storr
- Won Gold medal
- Named goalie of the tournament

What do they all have in commen, they were all average back ups at the NHL level.

Now I'm not saying Pogge is going to be just like these guys but you shouldn't let a gold medal make you think you have a future superstar. But hey it's not all bad, the leafs have Rask to be the number 1 guy for years to come and Pogge can back him up.

Maybe so but I'd still rather have a prospect who's accomplished at least something as opposed to one who's accomplished nothing.

That comment isn't reffering to Pogge and Price in particular. I'm just saying it's kind of pointless to discount a player's accomplishments just because of what other players did years in advance.

Oh and Trevor Kidd was actually a good NHL goalie at one point- especially his first few years in Calgary.

 

[TJF]

That comment isn't reffering to Pogge and Price in particular. I'm just saying it's kind of pointless to discount a player's accomplishments just because of what other players did years in advance..

Fair enough but at the sametime a lot of Leafs fans overrate Pogge because of that gold medal.

Oh and Trevor Kidd was actually a good NHL goalie at one point- especially his first few years in Calgary.

Maybe he was but a good NHL goalie can actually keep his job and stay a #1 goalie in the NHL for more than a few years.

 

[Metallian*]

News flash : you are here.
Question : why?
I'm pretty sure there is a metal music board somewhere.

As for the list, I will ask my question again cause I don't see any answer to it. How far was Penner from making the top-50, anyone considered him or is he a consensus "last-part-of-the-top100" guy?

I am here because there are a lot of informative posters on these boards and it makes for good hockey discussion.

For the record, I'm also on several music boards as well, but this is a hockey board, understand?

And as far as the list goes, its alright. There are definately some shortcomings though, especially price being in over top of rask or pogge, even though both made the WCJ and did fantastic, and price couldnt make the cut. both also have better numbers than him.

as far as st lous goes, yes, there is a bias or at least a lack of critical information on their players. for none of their players to make the top 50 list, something is wrong.

is this entire site a joke? no
could more preparation have gone into these rankings? absolutely

 

[HabOil]

Possible other players in top 25:

Jack Skille
Travis Zajac

Just a guess, but I expect Zajac to be there.

 

[Complaining Customer]

I'm sorry, I did not see the question. Lost amongst all the outrage over [favorite prospect] not getting any respect rants.

Well, I could tell you that he was in the 65-100 group and slightly appease all the Ducks fans. But then I would be lying to you. Penner was included in the over 160 prospects we looked at when compiling the list. But in the end, he did not garner enough attention to make it past the cut of 75. He's having a great year, no doubt about it, and it looks like the Ducks might have a good prospect on their hands. If he continues his level of play, he'll be in the NHL soon. But there are some reservations and he is up there in age. Top-end ceiling was likely a large factor.

Thanks a lot! That's about what I thought I'd get as an answer. I was just curious what kind of impression he was making on the knowledgeable fans.

 

[Checker*]

I guess its easier to take shots at me than to admit there is a preconceived notion that the Blues have a weak farm system. Consider this though

In the past 5 years, the Blues have produced 3 top 4 defensemen in Jackman Backman and Wideman. I acknowledge that Wideman's mention may draw raised eyebrows but the kid is getting a ton of icetime, playing with confidence, and producing. Matt Walker is a good 6th defenseman/enforcer. Lynch and Woywitka are underachieving but Zach FitzGerald (who may be meaner than Walker and Jackman) has Blues fans excited. Nikitin impressed in the WJCs and Scott Jackson was a borderline 1st rounder last year that the Blues picked up in the 2nd.

Our goaltending pipeline is one of the best in the league. I know when people think goaltending they don't think about the Blues, and for good reason, but that is going to change. Sanford has been the reason we aren't in last place this year. 'Cash showed flashes of why he will get a chance to be a starter. Barulin and Schwarz are solid prospects overseas. Beckford-Tseu was an ECHL All-star. Bishop is freaking huge and has potential to develop further.

At forward, I've made my position on Oshie already and stick to it. He and and a potential top 5 pick are playing together at the same school as freshmen and Oshie is outplaying him. Him not being in the top 50 is wrong. Next subject. The rest of the Blues forward prospects are guys who may not be the most household of names but will be borderline first liners in some cases and more likely solid 2nd and 3rd line guys. For instance, David Backes is a great college player on a poor team and no one here ever talks about him. The only love Soderberg gets is on the Swedish boards. A 4th round pick in Birner is tearing up his league. Lemtyugov looks to be a steal. Alexandrov is playing well in Russia. Shishkanov has big potential if he can ever put it al together. I'd be shocked if at least 2 or 3 of these guys aren't top 6 forwards. Currently with the big club, McClement looks like a keeper of a 3rd line center and Lee Stempniak is playing out of his mind. Consider that we'll be adding a top 5 pick and two picks in the range where our director of scouting is known for great picks and I'd say the cupboard is far from bare. This is impressive given the fact that the Blues lost so many 1st round draft picks through trade and Scott Stevens and when we've had them, they've been low because of the soon to be ending playoff streak.

I admit calling the site a joke was a step too far, but I do find it funny how so many people pretending to know about Blues hockey know so very little. The insistance that Keith Tkachuk is a cancer on the team and then the arrogance of arguing with fans that actually know what they're talking about as they are die-hard fans of the team, the ignoring of all prospects who are Blues, calling Schwarz a bust already...I could go on, but it isn't worth it.