Organizational Prospect Rankings: 2018 Final

[LastWordArmy]

if the Sharks are at 31st overall in the league in prospects, then this is the golden era of hockey...

there is NO way Pitt, Columbus and Washington should be ahead of them.

I take them over the Devils, Flames, and Preds though a bit closer...

The Sharks have a much better top 5 than any of these teams, and always hit on some later picks as well..

I am no Sharks fan, but you can look at their list and go no ****ing way they are 31st...Pronman has them much higher though I do not agree with him a lot..

The Caps are the worst right now and it isn't really close for me...

The Caps have an blue chip level talent in their system. That takes them up a notch for me. (Not far obviously as I had them at 30).

The Sharks, I just don't see any blue chippers there. Merkley is their top guy, and he has HUGE question marks. Balcers also has big questions on his compete level and consistency. Mario Ferraro and Josh Norris were very average in college. Chemlevski's defensive game is a mess, thats a big reason he fell to the 6th round just one year ago. It hasn't really improved much this past year. Gambrell is an NHL player, likely, but I don't know how high end he is. 3rd/4th line upside.

The Caps have the best goalie prospect in the league, IMO. They have two solid but unspectacular d prospects in Johansen and Alexeyev, Jonsson-Fiallby had a good season and Gersich is likely similar to Gambrell.

Neither pool is great, but the one elite prospect puts Washington ahead for me.

Pitt is 29 for us mainly because of our 50 game rule. Sprong, Jarry, Simon, and Aston-Reese all still count in their system under that rule.

Columbus... Abramov has the skill to overcome that lack of size, Foudy is a speedster, but should have been a second rounder, Carlsson could be a top 4 d, Gavrikov is solid but there are questions on his KHL status and when he comes over, and Davidsson had a solid season for a 20 year old in the SHL.

These teams don't have great pools, but to me, the 31 ranking of San Jose wasn't even particularly close. Not one Shark makes our top 100. I can't say that about any other team.

 

[AmericanDream]

The Caps have an blue chip level talent in their system. That takes them up a notch for me. (Not far obviously as I had them at 30).

The Sharks, I just don't see any blue chippers there. Merkley is their top guy, and he has HUGE question marks. Balcers also has big questions on his compete level and consistency. Mario Ferraro and Josh Norris were very average in college. Chemlevski's defensive game is a mess, thats a big reason he fell to the 6th round just one year ago. It hasn't really improved much this past year. Gambrell is an NHL player, likely, but I don't know how high end he is. 3rd/4th line upside.

The Caps have the best goalie prospect in the league, IMO. They have two solid but unspectacular d prospects in Johansen and Alexeyev, Jonsson-Fiallby had a good season and Gersich is likely similar to Gambrell.

Neither pool is great, but the one elite prospect puts Washington ahead for me.

Pitt is 29 for us mainly because of our 50 game rule. Sprong, Jarry, Simon, and Aston-Reese all still count in their system under that rule.

Columbus... Abramov has the skill to overcome that lack of size, Foudy is a speedster, but should have been a second rounder, Carlsson could be a top 4 d, Gavrikov is solid but there are questions on his KHL status and when he comes over, and Davidsson had a solid season for a 20 year old in the SHL.

These teams don't have great pools, but to me, the 31 ranking of San Jose wasn't even particularly close. Not one Shark makes our top 100. I can't say that about any other team.

I just do not see what you see, I think he Sharks have a better top 5 than the teams I mentioned, and goalies are such wildcards, I simply have no clue how they work out. Pronman has them much higher, and obviously he is very high on Merkley, but Gambrell is one of the most underrated prospects out there, and Sasha Chmelevski has continued to wow everyone including team USA at this past Summer camp..he was one of the best players on the ice, and will look stupid as a 6th round pick. Norris has disappointed me last year, but he just adds to the depth of what they have there which I do not think is the worst.

 

[LastWordArmy]

I just do not see what you see, I think he Sharks have a better top 5 than the teams I mentioned, and goalies are such wildcards, I simply have no clue how they work out. Pronman has them much higher, and obviously he is very high on Merkley, but Gambrell is one of the most underrated prospects out there, and Sasha Chmelevski has continued to wow everyone including team USA at this past Summer camp..he was one of the best players on the ice, and will look stupid as a 6th round pick. Norris has disappointed me last year, but he just adds to the depth of what they have there which I do not think is the worst.

I don't put a lot of stock into the "summer camps"

Its a small sample size, in the middle of the offseason. Some players are ready to jump right in, some players are not, and need time to shake off the rust. Some players are in the middle of a training regime that will peak in september, some are in a steady training regime that does things differently. Without knowing this behind the scenes stuff, its tough to put much stock in summer camps. The long term stuff seen during the season means much more to me than any summer camp.

 

[JohnLennon]

Meh I have a subscription and read them all. I strongly disagree with the way he ranked a number of prospects and think he values pure skill way, way too much in this ranking(He values it a tonne anyway, but I think he went even more overboard with this list).

Like I said, Tampa at #30 is just ridiculous as far as I'm concerned and I'm not even a Tampa fan. They have a lot of quality prospects that project to be solid NHLers. Just because they dont have an elite prospect(And once again I think Pronman is overrating pure skill here to say that Foote or Katchouk cant be high impact, Top 4/Top 6 guys in the future) should not take away from the tremendous depth they have.

Personally, I fundamentally disagree with you at a basic level, as I think one elite prospect is worth MUCH more than a single prospect like Foote or Katchouk. It makes more sense to me to rank it in tiers, and the higher the tier, the more that tier is weighted. It's for that reason that Buffalo should win any ranking hands down, as Dahlin is far ahead of any other prospect, and him along with another elite prospect in Mittelstadt should easily favor Buffalo into a number 1 ranking, despite their relative lack of quality depth after that.

Teams should be ranked based on the amount of high-end prospects they have, not the depth of their prospect pool. Tampa's pool has nothing special, whereas Buffalo, Vancouver, Carolina have seriously special players. This is just my opinion, but you can see why I agree with Pronman on a fundamental level and I'm pretty far off from your opinion. To each their own - your criticism is fair. Just thought I'd give my two cents as to why I certainly disagree with Pronman's rankings being "terrible".

 

[Mick Riddleton]

It is a compilation, so which other list are you laughing at?

List as in what is listed, the whole thing. Compilation of 3 sources and HF boards, lol. Pronman is not taking into consideration organizational depth just the big magic top pick, limited and narrow minded view's all around.

 

[Critical13]

List as in what is listed, the whole thing. Compilation of 3 sources and HF boards, lol. Pronman is not taking into consideration organizational depth just the big magic top pick, limited and narrow minded view's all around.

Care to enlighten us on what the real list is?

 

[sharks9]

List as in what is listed, the whole thing. Compilation of 3 sources and HF boards, lol. Pronman is not taking into consideration organizational depth just the big magic top pick, limited and narrow minded view's all around.

He doesn't not take it into consideration, he just puts more weight on high end skill

 

[LastWordArmy]

He doesn't not take it into consideration, he just puts more weight on high end skill

Which makes a ton of sense.

No NHL team is going to trade you a first line forward for three third liners and a fourth liner.

High end talent is just more valuable than depth.

 

[Namikaze Minato]

List as in what is listed, the whole thing. Compilation of 3 sources and HF boards, lol. Pronman is not taking into consideration organizational depth just the big magic top pick, limited and narrow minded view's all around.

Id love to see your compilation and how many sources you've pieced together, sounds like you're really the go to guy for this information.

 

[NuxFan09]

if the Sharks are at 31st overall in the league in prospects, then this is the golden era of hockey...

there is NO way Pitt, Columbus and Washington should be ahead of them.

I take them over the Devils, Flames, and Preds though a bit closer...

The Sharks have a much better top 5 than any of these teams, and always hit on some later picks as well..

I am no Sharks fan, but you can look at their list and go no ****ing way they are 31st...Pronman has them much higher though I do not agree with him a lot..

The Caps are the worst right now and it isn't really close for me...

See, for me Pittsburgh is the worst and it's not even close. At least the Caps have a blue chip goalie prospect in Ilya Samsonov. Lucas Johansen is also a solid D prospect. Pittsburgh has Sprong.... and a collection of decent prospects the likes of which every organization has. They haven't had a 1st round pick in 4 straight drafts and it shows.

 

[LordNeverLose]

See, for me Pittsburgh is the worst and it's not even close. At least the Caps have a blue chip goalie prospect in Ilya Samsonov. Lucas Johansen is also a solid D prospect. Pittsburgh has Sprong.... and a collection of decent prospects the likes of which every organization has. They haven't had a 1st round pick in 4 straight drafts and it shows.

And Sprong isn't even supposed to count for these rankings since he isn't calder eligible.

 

[Critical13]

Id love to see your compilation and how many sources you've pieced together, sounds like you're really the go to guy for this information.

He hasn't responded to any of these yet. I'd really like to see him post his list. A lot of hit and run critics on this site. I feel worse for @SilverY with his top 50 prospects polls. People love saying "this is trash" in his threads, but I don't see them saying why they think it is.

Which makes a ton of sense.

No NHL team is going to trade you a first line forward for three third liners and a fourth liner.

High end talent is just more valuable than depth.

Agreed! I thought all 3 media sources we used for this all had good lists and all made valid cases for them. Most of the outrage I see is people upset their favourite prospects/teams aren't getting the grade they think they should, but that's the name of the game for these subjective type lists.