Quote:
Originally Posted by Oil Stain
You don't make a whole team out of prospects either. History says that out of the Flames current top 20 prospects 2-4 will be players of some impact and another 3-4 will be borderline NHLers.
The rest will likely be washouts as will pretty much anyone outside their top 20.
|
Yes, only a small percentage of prospects make it on average.
However, what's somewhat different with the Flames right now, and the reason that fans are so upbeat, is that many of these prospects have continued to develop and move up the curve.
We're not talking raw draft picks here, we're talking bona fide prospects that are close to the NHL.
Gaudreau, Baertschi, Poirier and Granlund are all close, if not ready, to be impact NHLers.
Monahan, Backlund and Brodie are there.
Ortio and Gillies continue to develop well.
Bennett and Klimchuk are still young but look great.
Arnold, Knight, Reinhart, Wotherspoon, and others are all one step away.
Will they all make it? Of course not.
But the Flames do not have a 'normal' amount of quality prospects right now - they have an
abundance.
And it is therefore reasonable to assume that they will end up with an abundance of NHLers from this group.
You can't build a whole team from a group of prospects. But you sure can develop a really solid core that will serve you well and be something to build around for a long, long time