It's easier to deal Coleman next season than it would be dealing Kadri next season, add into the fact that I think Kadri kind of bumped his way to the front of the line to get out after seeing the writing on the wall whereas Coleman I think was fine with either/or scenario this year.
Yeah, Coleman will fetch a good deadline package next year. Just not the first everyone thinks . And there's nothing wrong with that.
I will add though that it isn't out of the realm of possibility that Coleman gets dealt in the offseason as well. The cap is spiking big time.
__________________ "Everybody's so desperate to look smart that nobody is having fun anymore" -Jackie Redmond
If the offers for Coleman again at the next deadline aren't enticing enough, I hope that Calgary re-signs Coleman on a 1-2 year deal. He, along with Backlund, are the two guys in the forward group that I would want my young kids developing around. Everyone else they can trade starting this upcoming off-season and towards the deadline, but if the offers aren't good for Coleman, I have no problem going 1-2 year deals until he retires. I love him way more than I ever thought I would when he was signed, and I thought it was a good signing.
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I will add though that it isn't out of the realm of possibility that Coleman gets dealt in the offseason as well. The cap is spiking big time.
Spiking cap combined with GMs seemingly only realizing at this deadline that the salary cap rules don't make it more advantageous to add a player at the deadline due to the playoff salary cap and might as well get your work done earlier.
Think we could see more offseason moves now because of it
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The Athletic used to run a ranking where they looked at each organization’s young players (under 22 or 23, I think), drafted prospects and draft number of draft picks over the next 3 years or so. It was pretty interesting as it dug a little deeper than just prospects.
If they ran that right now the Flames would be very high with the players they have and especially their draft capital.
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The Athletic used to run a ranking where they looked at each organization’s young players (under 22 or 23, I think), drafted prospects and draft number of draft picks over the next 3 years or so. It was pretty interesting as it dug a little deeper than just prospects.
If they ran that right now the Flames would be very high with the players they have and especially their draft capital.
Absolutely true, but where they lack right now is in actual proven talent under 22 or 23.
Calgary's future is large speculative right now. The next 2-3 years in drafting and especially development will likely tell when Calgary will next be a playoff team.
The Wild’s pool looks a heck of a lot different today than it has in recent years after graduating Jesper Wallstedt and Danila Yurov, and trading Zeev Buium, David Jiricek and Liam Öhgren. They were unable to supplement their pool with any talent of that quality after trading their first-round pick in the 2025 draft as well.
That’s the cost of doing business when you add one of the game’s best players and try to push in the NHL, but it does come with a cost. If playoff success follows, they’ll be able to live with it — like the Florida Panthers, Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning all have.
All five of the picks they did make last June in Los Angeles are making their debuts on this list, though, which isn’t always the case. And that, plus the progress of their 2023 first-rounder, does prevent their system from completely bottoming out after the recent changes.
I did think about ranking them a little lower in this year’s countdown, however.
The Devils’ pool lacks a top prospect up front, but they have a star goalie (as well as another who is intriguing), multiple legit D prospects and some peripheral forwards who could play games.
It seemed like a coin toss between the Rangers and Devils from my perspective.
Wheeler has always be very high on Gabe Perreault, who is also now showing very good early production in the NHL. So I suspect that is a factor in them sitting ahead of NJD.
Last edited by Jiri Hrdina; 03-19-2026 at 11:51 AM.
It seemed like a coin toss between the Rangers and Devils from my perspective.
It's nice that Wheeler is including links now to his last year's rankings. Impossible to search that site, so that's helpful to see why his rankings are changing.
Graduating Nemec dropped them five spots, since they didn't have a first round pick last year (for a very good reason).
You can really see the butterfly effect playing out with that 2024 NHL draft.
If New Jersey had taken Buium instead of Silayev in 2024, and the Wild took Silayev because Buium and Dickinson were gone, Vancouver may not have traded Hughes to Minnesota, and Minnesota may have gone after Andersson or Weegar or Parayko instead changing a bunch of things.
EDIT: And even more interesting, perhaps NJ would have landed Hughes instead if they had Buium and if Vancouver was specifically targetting him.
The Carolina Hurricanes have always given themselves a lot of lottery balls. They haven’t drafted high, but they’ve tended to collect mid-round picks, haven’t shied away from smaller players as the consensus has swung away from them and have drafted their fair share of Russians. All of those things come with mixed results, but the Canes have shown they’re willing to play in the margins.
Their 18 ranked players are the most so far in the countdown, despite having just one first-rounder among them. I considered ranking big Russian defensemen Alexander Siryatsky and Roman Bausov here as well, but I just want to see a little more of both first.
Wheeler has always be very high on Gabe Perreault, who is also now showing very good early production in the NHL. So I suspect that is a factor in them sitting ahead of NJD.
Perrault got off to a slow start, but has 4 goals and 12 points in has last 10 games - I would imagine he's getting more opportunities with Panarin gone
Perrault got off to a slow start, but has 4 goals and 12 points in has last 10 games - I would imagine he's getting more opportunities with Panarin gone
Yup. The question with him has always been his skating. But he has elite hockey sense. I see him very similar to Jason Robertson in that he will be a high end offensive producer, but with some flaws.
23. Minnesota Wild
22. New Jersey Devils
21. Carolina Hurricans
