Pronman's top 100 prospects entering the 18-19 season

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Worth hearing how he ranks players:

"My preference is for highly skilled players with upside. I look for prospects with speed, skill and intelligence. Skating is a little more important to me in forwards than defenders, and physicality is more important to me in defenders than forwards. I prefer forwards to defensemen, and centers to wingers. My ranking philosophy is the No. 1 goal of drafting and development is to find stars, and even a minor chance of becoming a star has significant value."

Explains some of why his list always looks a little odd.
It would be interesting to look back at some of his prior lists (from say 2015 and 2016) to evaluate how good he actually is at projecting talent.

I do tend to agree with the bolded part, as you can find everyday players through a variety of means. Not so true of elite players though.

How he reflects that in his rankings, well who knows. I have a hard time criticizing a guy who clearly knows way more about NHL prospects than I ever will. He seems to be one of the few that actually goes through a rankings exercise which does generate discussion.

[OutOfTheCube]

Where does he have Mittelstadt?

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

I do tend to agree with the bolded part, as you can find everyday players through a variety of means. Not so true of elite players though.

How he reflects that in his rankings, well who knows.

I agree with that statement too, but then he has Henrik Borgstrom at 5. Borgstrom will be an NHL player for sure, he's got enough skill and is 6'3" so we know he can physically make the transition... but his star potential is nowhere near as high as many, many other guys. Same thing for Kotkaniemi at 8 - he has all the tools to be an NHL player, for sure, but he doesn't have that elite talent that would give you the chance to be a real star. There are guys below them that do have that potential. Same thing for Brady Tkachuk.

These are all great prospects, I'm not saying otherwise, but they don't reflect the ranking principles he claims to be using.

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Where does he have Mittelstadt?

Third, behind Dahlin and Svechnikov. Which is probably about right - he's top 10 for sure, top 5 for probably a decent chunk of scouts. But then he has Robert Thomas at 4th, and Borgstrom 5th, which isn't reasonable.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Where does he have Mittelstadt?

#3 behind Dahlin and Svechnikov

[savardandjokinen]

You know the list is bad when the 22nd best prospect is some random 5th rounder named Lukas Elvenes

[OutOfTheCube]

I hope Mittelstadt can live up the the billing he's been getting this off-season. I know he's an eighth overall pick, not exactly some brilliant deep round pick like Gaudreau, but it would still accelerate the rebuild dramatically to hit a home run there. Our other 8th overall pick is struggling a bit (Nylander).