NHL's Best and Worst prospect pools

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

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.



Yes. Why?

I reserve judgment - they've been "up and coming" for 15 years.

[Burning Beard]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

I reserve judgment - they've been "up and coming" for 15 years.

Steering wheel has been broken because they can never seem to turn the corner.

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

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.

Yep, the Sabres really had a great overall season torpedoed by one horrid 8-game losing streak. They go 1-7 in there and they make the playoffs.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Yep, the Sabres really had a great overall season torpedoed by one horrid 8-game losing streak. They go 1-7 in there and they make the playoffs.

The Flames also had a really good overall season, torpedoed by one 76 game bad streak.

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

The Flames also had a really good overall season, torpedoed by one 76 game bad streak.

Flames had no injury luck too, that one stretch where Tanev was out really hurt them. If the entire team had stayed healthy for the season they make the playoffs I think.

[Vinny01]

Lazy analysis from the article in the OP specifically on the mention of Zary being held back. He had a great year this season but only played 24 games in his D+1 season and 53 games in his D+2. This year he had a full season and scored at a very respectable rate. I think he gets NHL games this year but by no means has be been held back. Even Pelltier who had great numbers before his call up came in and eventually saw top 6 minutes for the Flames.

Ultimately the Lazar and Hamonic trades really weakened the pool. 3 straight 2nd round picks out the door and a 12th overall selection. The Toffoli and Jarnkrok trades sent out a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and recently drafted prospect from the 2nd round along with a 5th. I believe the 3rd they got for Rittich was flipped for Zadorov, and they did nab Suniev with Toffoli’s recent trade who we all just voted as a top 10 prospect in the org.

The good news is their first rounders from 19-21 all look like they are going to play and there are some other intriguing prospects in the list who have nice upside like Wolf, and Poirier. I think the Flames pool is closer to 18-20th than it is to the bottom 3rd but I am far from a prospect expert.

[blankall]

The Flames don't have sure-fire top end talent, but they have many guys about to make the jump into the NHL that have top line ceilings. If one of these guys jumps to the top line, this makes this placing looking ridiculous in hindsight.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Originally Posted by blankall

The Flames don't have sure-fire top end talent, but they have many guys about to make the jump into the NHL that have top line ceilings. If one of these guys jumps to the top line, this makes this placing looking ridiculous in hindsight.

It's definitely not a bottom third prospect pool any more. The fact that they held guys back last year should by the same logic mean that they have fuller cupboards as a result, no? Graduating players depletes your pool.

That shouldn't be part of the argument for why they are being put further down the list. The Flames now have potentially a few guys NHL ready knocking at the door, and they added 3 really good players at this draft.

Can we get the rankings of people that actually think this #### through?

[blankall]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

It's definitely not a bottom third prospect pool any more. The fact that they held guys back last year should by the same logic mean that they have fuller cupboards as a result, no? Graduating players depletes your pool.

That shouldn't be part of the argument for why they are being put further down the list. The Flames now have potentially a few guys NHL ready knocking at the door, and they added 3 really good players at this draft.

Can we get the rankings of people that actually think this #### through?

Exactly. How many teams have a half dozen guys all ready to get some kind of NHL time? Clearly, if you've got a Bedard, you deserve a top ranking, but this list has pool with guys like Knies, Matthew Wood, Chaz Lucius, etc.. putting them well ahead of Pelletier, Zary, Ruzicka, etc...

All of the prospects in this range are pretty comparable, and the Flames deserve to be higher based on sheer numbers alone.

[NegativeSpace]

The Flames are constantly rated low in these organizational ratings despite consistently graduating players to NHL roles. I don't think that they deserve a top rating, as they don't have many great prospects due to trading to many picks. Every organization has players than stall in development or don't graduate. Seems to me that the Flames have been middle of the pack, despite limiting the number of draft picks for the last 5 years or so.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

They also haven't drafted in the top 10 enough of late to be a top 10 club. But they should probably be in that 12-18 area following the 2023 draft.

[madmike]

Objectively they should be somewhere between 20 and 25. The drafting has been fine though. They’ve had no super high picks. And they’ve had fewer picks than they should have, which is on the GM and not the scouts.