Hockey News Flames Prospect Grade: Not getting any better...

[3thirty]

If anyone read the Metro today Brian Costello of the Hockey News talked about the flames prospects and we managed to get a worse rank than last year.

This year we were ranked 27th, last year 23rd. This gave us a C grade.

No surprise the Oilers got an A grade thanks to Hall, Eberle Etc.

Erixon was the 15th ranked prospect overall, while Brodie was 69th.

They had Nemisz (our 3rd best prospect) drop out of the top 75 list and now have him projected as a 3rd line grinder with skating issues.

Howse was our #4 prospect with Irving #5, but had neither of them in the top 75 either.

Prospects 6-10 were Bouma, Ramage, Wahl, Ortio and then Pelech.

The entire league will be profiled in the March isue according to the article.

Seems as if the piling on of the Flames prospects continues in the media, even though they seem to be having some success lately. I personally think that we may not have the prospects Edmonton has, but the future isn't as bad as they make it out to be.

Found the link:http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/comm...-passing-grade

[jeremywilhelm]

The Hockey News is a pretty garbage magazine and website. I would put about as much stock in their rankings as I do the hockey futures site.

[Caged Great]

I can't really argue too much with that. We don't have much of anything. Erixon is going to be fairly decent, perhaps Brodie as well. Irving may or may not be good, but the rest of the players look like 3rd/4th line 6th/7th d-men. Not exactly great.

We are in need of an influx of youth, whether it's coming sooner (at the deadline) or later we do need some players with potential.

[CaptainCrunch]

Edmonton is going to have a pretty high ranking because of the we blow the dog scenario. Plus there is a lot of cheerleading for their prospect base. But the bottom line with Edmonton for example is that we hear great things year after year, but for the most part they don't pan out.

The fact that Calgary dropped 4 places is a joke, it just shows what kind of prospects are valued when it comes time to grade prospects.

Calgary's prospect strength is on the blue line, and in goal, and I would put our blue line prospects and goaltending prospects up against most other teams in the NHL.

The problem is up front where we heard that we needed more skill players, so the Flames drafted over the last couple with Skill forwards in mind, but we're still a couple of years from that panning out.

I also think that Backlund's lack of production really hurts our rankings as well.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

I would have thought Irving would get some consideration to be higher. Other than that it doesn't sound too out of whack. I agree with Erixon and Brodie being our two best prospects although Irving maybe should be in that mix. Breen has maybe fought his way ahead of Pelech and Ramage.

[sevenarms]

Outside of Erixon there are no potential stars in the Flames' prospects. That is what I think these rankings are searching for. Calgary has immense depth on the blue-line, in net, and lower-tier forwards, but no one that stands out. The Flames have an excellent pool of players available to use in the future but no one that's really going to turn heads.

[Beerfest]

We have a solid group of WHL prospects right now, imo.

Howse, Bennett, Reinhart, Ferland, Holland and Leach have all looked solid this year.

Obviously no one knows how they will develop, but I believe they have the potential to develop well.

[Ring of Fire]

Lots of prospects projected to be role players and few prospects with top line potential. Can't say I'm surprised but the recent crop of who prospects we have along with Erixon and Brodie could have the Flames on the upswing.

[Bezer]

I was looking at Tim Erixon and I must say I am excited about him. The following link shows the stats of the team he plays for in Sweden. Two things impress me, the age of himself compared to his teammates and his points.. second highest scoring D-man and 9th overall. http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/csl.php?tid=2348

I think we have a winner with this guy.

[flamesaresmokin]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

I can't really argue too much with that. We don't have much of anything. Erixon is going to be fairly decent, perhaps Brodie as well. Irving may or may not be good, but the rest of the players look like 3rd/4th line 6th/7th d-men. Not exactly great.

We are in need of an influx of youth, whether it's coming sooner (at the deadline) or later we do need some players with potential.

Have you checked out our whl prospects lately? All of them are having excellent seasons for their age groups and could very well be top scorers in the league next season (some are already) If thats not potential I don't know what is.

The fact this clown doesn't consider irving a top prospect is a complete joke. He's one of the top goalies in the entire ahl and also fails to mention any of our WHL talent whatsoever outside of howse (who is on the verge of taking back to back 40 goal season on a garbage team into a 50 goal campaign).

[flamesaresmokin]

Originally Posted by Beerfest

We have a solid group of WHL prospects right now, imo.

Howse, Bennett, Reinhart, Ferland, Holland and Leach have all looked solid this year.

Obviously no one knows how they will develop, but I believe they have the potential to develop well.

Agreed. This group has tremendous potential to produce a top line player. Guess these clowns don't consider anyone a top level talent until team canada knocks on their door.

[sevenarms]

Originally Posted by Bezer

I was looking at Tim Erixon and I must say I am excited about him. The following link shows the stats of the team he plays for in Sweden. Two things impress me, the age of himself compared to his teammates and his points.. second highest scoring D-man and 9th overall. http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/csl.php?tid=2348

I think we have a winner with this guy.

Check out the other 19 year old D-man on that team though. Granlund is tearing it up!

[MJM]

Why do people get so mad when they read the truth? Our prospect pool absolutely sucks. Unless you are drinking the Flames Kool Aid heavily, it's painfully obvious that we don't have one single player in our system that could even remotely be considered to be a top 6 forward in the NHL. Even our D is full of 2nd/3rd pair prospects. We may have two legitimate goalie prospects in Irving and Ortio, but that's it.

I think a C rating is pretty generous for us.......

[BigBrodieFan]

Originally Posted by MJM

Why do people get so mad when they read the truth? Our prospect pool absolutely sucks. Unless you are drinking the Flames Kool Aid heavily, it's painfully obvious that we don't have one single player in our system that could even remotely be considered to be a top 6 forward in the NHL. Even our D is full of 2nd/3rd pair prospects. We may have two legitimate goalie prospects in Irving and Ortio, but that's it.

I think a C rating is pretty generous for us.......

[Matty81]

Ya Wahl in the top 10 and Reinhart not even ranked tells me all I need to know about how much research went into that article.

[Beerfest]

Originally Posted by MJM

Why do people get so mad when they read the truth? Our prospect pool absolutely sucks. Unless you are drinking the Flames Kool Aid heavily, it's painfully obvious that we don't have one single player in our system that could even remotely be considered to be a top 6 forward in the NHL. Even our D is full of 2nd/3rd pair prospects. We may have two legitimate goalie prospects in Irving and Ortio, but that's it.

I think a C rating is pretty generous for us.......

The expert weighs in and tells us how our prospects will develop.
Its hilarious when people say the Flames dont have any potential 6 talent in prospects. Who knows how Nemisz, Howse, Reinhart, etc will develop.

[Beerfest]

Originally Posted by Matty81

Ya Wahl in the top 10 and Reinhart not even ranked tells me all I need to know about how much research went into that article.

Wahl should easily be in the top 10..

[Matty81]

Originally Posted by Beerfest

Wahl should easily be in the top 10..

If he scores 5 points over the next 15-20 games he plays I think he'll find himself in the ECHL. Was in the top 10 last season.

[Beerfest]

Originally Posted by Matty81

If he scores 5 points over the next 15-20 games he plays I think he'll find himself in the ECHL. Was in the top 10 last season.

Yes, he was.

He had 96 points in the WHL last year, and 9 points in 7 WHL playoff games.

Had 4 points in 4 AHL regular season games last year and had 6 points in 12 AHL playoff games

He has been struggling with some injuries this year and had 5 points in 17 games. He's currently injured.

[MJM]

Originally Posted by Matty81

Ya Wahl in the top 10 and Reinhart not even ranked tells me all I need to know about how much research went into that article.

5 point in 17 games...... I wouldn't rank him in the top 10 either. Do we even have 10 prospects worth ranking?