Went with Klimchuk... although I'm sort of regretting it in favour of Wotherspoon now. It's really tough to rank players at this point (which is encouraging!).
Klimchuk is a talented and hard working forward who is clearly the best player on his team and will likely be playing for the WJC team. He looked really good in the development camp from what I saw - he's highly competitive and has a great release and knack for finding open space.
Wotherspoon adjusted to the NHL game last season and from my perspective had established himself as a regular before the injury. I really like his game and see him as a future top 4 D who will play a shut-down role and be a mainstay on the PK... maybe like a Willie Mitchell or Barrett Jackman type.
Ortio and Gillies are both exciting goaltending prospects putting up great numbers.
Ortio's are just superb (27-8-0-0 with .926 SVP and 2.33 GAA). Ortio was 4th in wins (1st-3rd all played at least 11 more games than him), 6th in GAA, and 2nd in save percentage. Considering that the team he was backstopping was absolutely ravaged by injuries and call ups, his performance is even more impressive. He looked pretty good at the NHL level in most of the games, although he finished on a low note getting pulled. I like his calm demeanour.
Reinhart had one of the most impressive turnaround seasons I have ever witnessed. I suspect that I have been underrating him because he looks a lot like a checker when he plays in the NHL. He's been exceeding expectations for years now though, so who knows what he'll bring this year.
I feel like I've gone on too long and there remain a bunch of exciting prospects that I haven't even mentioned. Can't wait to see who sticks and becomes impact players out of this young group!
|