The Athletic Pronman: Buffalo Sabres rank No. 3 in NHL Pipeline Rankings for 2023

[Dingo44]

He is including active players like Cozens, Power, Krebs, Quinn, and Peterka in his list so it's mostly players 23 and under.

I think he has both Levi and Rosen WAY too low.

Also, he has Anaheim #1 and the Blackhawks #2.

Pronman is kind of a joke.

Corey Pronman's NHL Pipeline Rankings: No. 3 Sabres have built a formidable system

Ranking the top prospects and under-23 players in the organization. Plus, what to expect of every player.

theathletic.com

Players are ranked this way:

1. Cozens
2. Power
3. Quinn
4. Benson
5. Peterka
6. Kulich
7. Ostlund
8. Savoie
9. Krebs
10. Wahlberg
11. Strbak
12. Levi
13. Nadeau
14. McCarthy
15. Rosen
16. Neuchev
17. Johnson
18. Ratzlaff
19. Poltapov

Honorable Mentions (No particular order): Leinonen, Miedema, Novikov

Click to read more...

 

[Dingo44]

I posted the individual writeups in each player's thread.

 

[Zman5778]

I'm looking through them now, and the first glaring thing that jumps out to me:

JJP has his shot ranked as "NHL elite", Cozens is "Above NHL Average" and Quinn.....doesn't have his shot ranked.

Quinn's shot is easily the best of the 3......and I feel like Cozens' is better than JJP.

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

Levi at 12 is laughable and kills any credibility that list could have.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

What's wrong with including players <23? Frankly a 'pipeline' evaluation is more translatable to team success than a 'prospect' one IMO.

EDIT: Corrected the inequity symbol

 

[Dingo44]

What's wrong with including players >23? Frankly a 'pipeline' evaluation is more translatable to team success than a 'prospect' one IMO.

I mistyped my sentence - I meant that Pronman is a joke and his list includes 23 and under. Those are two separate things. He's a joke no matter if he includes full-time NHL'ers or not.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

I mistyped my sentence - I meant that Pronman is a joke and his list includes 23 and under. Those are two separate things. He's a joke no matter if he includes full-time NHL'ers or not.

Thanks for the clarification!

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Levi at 12 is laughable and kills any credibility that list could have.

He gave his reasons why on the podcast. NHL scouts still aren’t sold on him, because of his size and lack of elite traits, and they thought he had obvious issues in his brief NHL stint.

Just because he has a different opinion on a player doesn’t cause him to lose credibility - talk about being overly sensitive! Especially when his opinion is shared by plenty of professionals, and the player has proven nothing at the pro level.

 

[HOOats]

He gave his reasons why on the podcast. NHL scouts still aren’t sold on him, because of his size and lack of elite traits, and they thought he had obvious issues in his brief NHL stint.

Just because he has a different opinion on a player doesn’t cause him to lose credibility - talk about being overly sensitive! Especially when his opinion is shared by plenty of professionals, and the player has proven nothing at the pro level.

Pronman is certainly a charlatan from my perspective. His method and criteria are hopelessly lacking. We could give certain posters on this board a full-time gig covering prospects and they'd easily produce better content. The shallowness of his analysis for someone who does this as a full-time job is stunning.

That said, it's fair to point out the issues that Levi had in his 7 game stint as well as that he hasn't proven anything in the pros (nor has he had the chance to). What doesn't check out to me is "the lack of elite traits." Outside of height, Levi is made of elite traits - skating (which could be broken down further into multiple elite traits), glove, competitiveness, focus, production.

 

[TageGod]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Does that express my opinion well enough?

 

[Archie Lee]

I like Pronman and Wheeler. As a hockey fan who enjoys the draft and following our prospects, it is great to have the content they provide. Do I agree with them on all of their rankings? Of course not. It would be some kind of amazing if a person who covers prospects across all teams and leagues could nail the general consensus on prospect rankings that an NHL team's fanbase has. I don't think this is something to be taken too seriously. The good news is that we are loaded with good young players.

I haven't listened to his comments on the Sabres yet, so haven't heard what he said about Levi. I did, though, hear his earlier comments on Calgary's goalie prospect Dustin Wolf. He actually referenced Levi in these comments and, I'm paraphrasing, said that there are two sets of opinions on Wolf and Levi: There is the public/local-media/fan opinion that these goalies are NHL #1's in waiting, and then there is the inside the NHL opinion that there is real uncertainty about whether they are true #1 NHL goalies.

 

[Archie Lee]

Levi at 12 is laughable and kills any credibility that list could have.

In January 2023 Pronman had Levi in his top 5 for goalies under 23 in the NHL pipeline. He likes Levi. He happens to like the Sabres' under 23 pipeline so much that he has us with 11 players who he projects to be better than Levi as NHL players. That's a good thing.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

No way Blackhawks is better than Sabres. Bedard is good but after that?

 

[brian_griffin]

In January 2023 Pronman had Levi in his top 5 for goalies under 23 in the NHL pipeline. He likes Levi. He happens to like the Sabres' under 23 pipeline so much that he has us with 11 players who he projects to be better than Levi as NHL players. That's a good thing.

Thinking further, the only logical conclusion (for a Sabre fan) is that
4. Benson
5. Peterka
6. Kulich
7. Ostlund
8. Savoie
10. Wahlberg
11. Strbak
12. Levi
will all finish in the top-4 of Calder voting the next ~3-4 years, but will fractionate the vote such that no Sabre will win it.

 

[ZemgusWho]

After reading the Ducks and the Blackhawks, I don't see how they actually deserved being ranked above Buffalo in depth + quality.

But hey, mixing up the rankings is probably good for readership.

His ranking of Levi is WAAY TOO LOW. I even like the guys above him, and respect that he thinks we have 11 guys above him. But I still wholeheartedly disagree.

 

[Dirty Dog]

i enjoy his write ups and articles, but they are just for entertainment. The idea that one person could have such a good understanding of every team’s U23 talent…to a degree he could rank them.

 

[GettingYourMoms]

He is including active players like Cozens, Power, Krebs, Quinn, and Peterka in his list so it's mostly players 23 and under.

I think he has both Levi and Rosen WAY too low.

Also, he has Anaheim #1 and the Blackhawks #2.

Pronman is kind of a joke.

Corey Pronman's NHL Pipeline Rankings: No. 3 Sabres have built a formidable system

Ranking the top prospects and under-23 players in the organization. Plus, what to expect of every player.

theathletic.com

Players are ranked this way:

1. Cozens
2. Power
3. Quinn
4. Benson
5. Peterka
6. Kulich
7. Ostlund
8. Savoie
9. Krebs
10. Wahlberg
11. Strbak
12. Levi
13. Nadeau
14. McCarthy
15. Rosen
16. Neuchev
17. Johnson
18. Ratzlaff
19. Poltapov

Honorable Mentions (No particular order): Leinonen, Miedema, Novikov

How is Benson ranked ahead of Kulich lmao what an i*iot!

 

[NotABadPeriod]

Goalies can be tough to rank alongside skaters, but Levi at 12 is awful.

But just within a given position, how on Earth is Strbak and McCarthy ahead of Ryan Johnson? Like...what the hell? Nadeau ahead of Rosen, Neuchev, and Poltapov?

 

[Weltschmerz]

I thought he was low on Benson, because of his skating and size and that he doesn't see him at that special to overcome that?
What does that tell us about the players behind him?

 

[dortt]

He gave his reasons why on the podcast. NHL scouts still aren’t sold on him, because of his size and lack of elite traits, and they thought he had obvious issues in his brief NHL stint.

Just because he has a different opinion on a player doesn’t cause him to lose credibility - talk about being overly sensitive! Especially when his opinion is shared by plenty of professionals, and the player has proven nothing at the pro level.

scouts are notoriously stupid

Scouts led to the greatest athlete of all time being picked in the 6th round, 199th overall. That says everything you need to see about dumb scouts

 

[Ace]

scouts are notoriously stupid

Scouts led to the greatest athlete of all time being picked in the 6th round, 199th overall. That says everything you need to see about dumb scouts

They didn’t know he would cheat.

 

[cowboy82nd]

scouts are notoriously stupid

Scouts led to the greatest athlete of all time being picked in the 6th round, 199th overall. That says everything you need to see about dumb scouts

And who is that?

 

[Dirty Dog]

scouts are notoriously stupid

Scouts led to the greatest athlete of all time being picked in the 6th round, 199th overall. That says everything you need to see about dumb scouts

Tom Brady was no athlete!!!

 

[Gras]

scouts are notoriously stupid

Scouts led to the greatest athlete of all time being picked in the 6th round, 199th overall. That says everything you need to see about dumb scouts

Would he be who he was if he was drafted bt the Browns instead of the Patriots

 

[Push Dr Tracksuit]

He is including active players like Cozens, Power, Krebs, Quinn, and Peterka in his list so it's mostly players 23 and under.

I think he has both Levi and Rosen WAY too low.

Also, he has Anaheim #1 and the Blackhawks #2.

Pronman is kind of a joke.

Corey Pronman's NHL Pipeline Rankings: No. 3 Sabres have built a formidable system

Ranking the top prospects and under-23 players in the organization. Plus, what to expect of every player.

theathletic.com

Players are ranked this way:

1. Cozens
2. Power
3. Quinn
4. Benson
5. Peterka
6. Kulich
7. Ostlund
8. Savoie
9. Krebs
10. Wahlberg
11. Strbak
12. Levi
13. Nadeau
14. McCarthy
15. Rosen
16. Neuchev
17. Johnson
18. Ratzlaff
19. Poltapov

Honorable Mentions (No particular order): Leinonen, Miedema, Novikov

The athletic is becoming kind of a joke