NHL's Best and Worst prospect pools

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by redmile04

But they didnt say only drafting also mentioned development: It would be hard to point to a team who has drafted and developed worse than the Calgary Flames over the last half decade

You can add Valimaki to your list of Phillips and ruzicka. Imagine Sutter was around next season.. thinking of Pelletier under his coaching again, barf.

No we are just focused on the Flames and assume that things are worse here. There are a teams I would argue are worse. But it depends on how you evaluate. Are you assessing based on overall talent injected into the line-up or are you factoring in volume of picks and relative quality of picks?

For instance a simplistic approach would point to a team like Pittsburgh as being at the very bottom.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Originally Posted by redmile04

But they didnt say only drafting also mentioned development: It would be hard to point to a team who has drafted and developed worse than the Calgary Flames over the last half decade

You can add Valimaki to your list of Phillips and ruzicka. Imagine Sutter was around next season.. thinking of Pelletier under his coaching again, barf.

Darryl absolutely did some damage to our development last year.

Had last year been under Conroy & Huska, I doubt that Valimaki gets to waivers for Arizona.

Definitely a No Good moment for the Flames to let their long time 1st round pick with upside walk to the desert.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Scott Wheeler just put out his drafted goalie prospect ranking, and he has Wolf at #4.

https://theathletic.com/4665592/2023...pects-ranking/

I think it’s a pretty fair ranking. Almost put him second but size is holding him back. Same concern as most have.

[Major Major]

I disagree that any individual prospect has been "stunted" by the flames but do think the team has missed out on having them play.

[HighLifeMan]

Originally Posted by Bonded

I think it’s a pretty fair ranking. Almost put him second but size is holding him back. Same concern as most have.

When has his size "held him back", though?

Two of the games elite goaltenders in Saros and Shesterkin are damn near identical heights.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Levi and Wolf are interesting at 3 and 4 as basically identical in that they have been elite to this point but the questions around their physical attributes.

To me there is a clear top 4 ledge of goalie prospects in the league. Exciting that we have one of them picked in the 7th.

[dino7c]

"it would be hard to find a team that's worse....other than these 10 teams we rank below them"

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by HighLifeMan

When has his size "held him back", though?

Two of the games elite goaltenders in Saros and Shesterkin are damn near identical heights.

It will be harder for Wolf to be a star in the NHL due to his size. A bigger guy is the safer bet if you think talent levels are about the same.

Either way I think even being in conversation for being one of the top goalie prospects in the NHL is a great return on a 7th round pick.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Levi and Wolf are interesting at 3 and 4 as basically identical in that they have been elite to this point but the questions around their physical attributes.

To me there is a clear top 4 ledge of goalie prospects in the league. Exciting that we have one of them picked in the 7th.

And nuts that 2 of the 4 were 7th rounders…

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by Bonded

It will be harder for Wolf to be a star in the NHL due to his size. A bigger guy is the safer bet if you think talent levels are about the same.

Either way I think even being in conversation for being one of the top goalie prospects in the NHL is a great return on a 7th round pick.

The other prospect people are talking about is Levi, a 7th round pick who is the same height as Wolf.

Big goalies are great if you just need a body but smaller goalies still have the ability to be elite. Half of the goalies who finished in the top 10 in the NHL for save percentage last year were 6’2 or smaller.

A Henrik Karlsson will always find some time in the NHL because of misplaced notions that big is a quality worth looking for in a goalie but it seems like there are a decent number of small elite goalies.

[Ashes]

So the Flames get slept on as usual when it comes to our prospect pool and just the team overall. You only need to listen to a 2 minute clip of TSN, Sportsnet, or any radio outside of Calgary to understand that other markets typically don't have a clue what's going on with the Flames outside of maybe the 1st round picks.

I think the addition of Morin, Suniev, and Honzek should be enough to boost those ratings especially when you add in Coronato, Zary, Poirier, Kuznetsov, Stromgren, and Wolf. But at the end of the day they're only ratings and it really doesn't matter what the outside opinion of the team is. The lack of in-depth knowledge of teams in the West is pretty glaring though IMO.

When a bunch of these young guys start making the team over the next 1-3 years I'm sure the narrative will switch to "Well, the Flames sure got lucky that a few of these guys turned out.. cause it wasn't looking good".

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

The other prospect people are talking about is Levi, a 7th round pick who is the same height as Wolf.

Big goalies are great if you just need a body but smaller goalies still have the ability to be elite. Half of the goalies who finished in the top 10 in the NHL for save percentage last year were 6’2 or smaller.

A Henrik Karlsson will always find some time in the NHL because of misplaced notions that big is a quality worth looking for in a goalie but it seems like there are a decent number of small elite goalies.

For sure. I just don’t think it is a sleight on Wolf to be #4 on the list and almost #2. It’s not like the athletic article said he sucked and had no chance of making it.

[Erick Estrada]

What am I missing about the Leafs prospect base? It doesn't look at all that good to me to be ahead of Calgary and Ottawa.

[HighLifeMan]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

What am I missing about the Leafs prospect base? It doesn't look at all that good to me to be ahead of Calgary and Ottawa.

You are not missing anything.

Classic case of pandering to the bigger market. That prospect pool lacks not only top end talent, but depth as well.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

What am I missing about the Leafs prospect base? It doesn't look at all that good to me to be ahead of Calgary and Ottawa.

Over hype on Knies.

[Jiri Hrdina]

I would put the Flames at 19 - ahead of Toronto and Ottawa.

[shutout]

What I would like to see is someone like the Athletic have each teams beat writer go to one of the teams scouts or management team members and get their opinion of the top 20 prospects in the league. Then compile those lists and see what the real general league consensus is on the top prospects.

Define the prospect ranking as if all of the players were free agents and you were picking in a draft who would you choose in order.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Does the Athletic have beat writers any more?

[GioforPM]

I'd like to see how many years Buffalo has been top 5 or so in prospect base. Given what they've accomplished (or haven't).

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

I'd like to see how many years Buffalo has been top 5 or so in prospect base. Given what they've accomplished (or haven't).

Fair to say it appears they are finally turning the corner. I don't know if Granato is a good coach as their team defense was not great but they had some really good flashes last season. With all the prospects they have there's really no excuse for them not to take the next step in the next season or two.

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Does the Athletic have beat writers any more?

Yes. Why?