Quote:
Originally Posted by 1qqaaz
It would be interesting to see how these prospect pool rankings correlate to the improvement of each team. The top 10 teams from 5 years ago should playoff teams by now, shouldn't they?
Here is Corey Pronman's top 10 from 2011:
1. Detroit
2. NY Islanders
3. Nashville
4. Ottawa
5. Chicago
6. Carolina
7. Boston
8. LA
9. Florida
10. Anaheim
Yes, most of those teams are in the playoffs now. But Toronto was 11th, Edmonton was 16th, Calgary was 27th. Teams like Tampa Bay, San Jose, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Dallas were in his bottom 10.
I don't necessarily disagree with Pronman this year. However, player development is almost as much of a crapshoot as the draft. Some teams are evidently much better at developing players than others. |
Detroit definitely had some great prospects around that time. Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan, Mrazek, Jurco.
But they never had a Kuznetsov, Tarasenko/Schwartz, Brodie/Gaudreau, Palat/Johnson/Kucherov, or Klingberg. Prospects are definitely inherently unpredictable. Which is why these lists do need a grain of salt especially past those top ten prospects everyone is familiar with. Just drafting a Darnell Nurse and Nail Yakupov is not enough. Teams need to defy their drafting fate so-to-speak. Go for the home run whereever possible.