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Welcome back, it is the Thursday action ramblings.

The music choice will be brought to you by one of the best bands today.

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I was reading through the TSN site Tuesday and came across Craig Button’s top 50 NHL prospects article (Button is always a must read even if you greatly disagree with him), and in the article was a top five prospects for each Canadian team. That got me thinking that I should do my own! But instead of top five for Canadian teams I will do my personal top five fantasy prospects for ALL teams… but it’ll be in four parts separated by divisions.

These will be best prospects I think for future fantasy relevance, NHL wait-time will not matter for more developed prospects (i.e. KHL players who may not come over for a few years). There will be a few cases where I will include prospects with NHL games played as I feel they have not been given a fair shake to prove themselves or have begun to hit their potential yet. Also I am bound to randomly forget some so if you feel I grossly missed someone let me know in the comments and I can either feel shame or think you are wrong.

PACIFIC

Anaheim

1. Sam Steel
2. Jacob Larsson
3. Max Jones
4. Kevin Roy
5. Troy Terry

Notes:

• If Kevin Roy is given a chance to play meaningful minutes I believe he can score in the NHL, he just needs the ice time
• Watch Ondrej Kase in the future, if he gets a top six spot he will produce in that role

Arizona

1. Nick Merkley
2. Pierre-Olivier Joseph
3. Dylan Strome
4. Tyler Steenbergen
5. Conor Garland

Notes:

• A lot of Arizona’s prospects are currently in the NHL as NHLers and are being given a chance to play (Perlini, Dvorak, Keller, Chychrun, Fischer), so the system in its current form looks barren 
• The potential for Strome is still there but I just do not see his skating as being NHL-worthy to even get out of the AHL

Calgary

1. Rasmus Andersson
2. Oliver Kylington
3. Adam Fox
4. Andrew Mangiapane
5. Juuso Valimaki

Notes:

• Honourable mention: Tyler Parson’s – he would be on here higher if the Flames goalie system was not well stocked and goalie development patterns were not voodoo
• Morgan Klimchuk may yet be able to carve out an NHL career
• The Flames have incredibly envious young depth on the back end, rivaled only by Anaheim's draft history, but all three look to be legitimate top three defensemen 

Edmonton

1. Jesse Puljujarvi
2. Kailer Yamamoto
3. Ostap Safin
4. Ethan Bear
5. Caleb Jones

Notes:

• Besides the recent high end picks the Edmonton system is very …. well let’s just say, it is not half-bad but it is not half-good either
• I include Puljujarvi because he is just starting to be given a legitimate NHL shot. However it is more out of necessity than him being ready, as the Oilers have no depth on the wing that can prevent currently throwing JP into the fire

Los Angeles

1. Gabriel Vilardi
2. Kale Clague
3. Mike Amadio
4. Michael Mersch
5. Jaret Anderson-Dolan

Notes:

• The Kings better hope Vilardi can improve his skating because if not they’ll continue to struggle to score
• Amadio and Mercsh are nice surprises but definitely do not wow

San Jose

1. Josh Norris
2. Tim Heed
3. Jeremy Roy
4. Maxim Letunov
5. Danny O’Regan

Notes:

• With Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc proving they can stay in the NHL the rest of the Sharks prospect pool is quite poor

Vancouver

1. Elias Pettersson
2. Jonathan Dalen
3. Thatcher Demko
4. Nikolay Goldobin
5. Olli Juolevi

Notes:

• The Canucks really managed a huge steal with the Burrows for Dahlen trade
• Thatcher Demko is one of the top goalie prospects outside the NHL and looks like he will be right on track to seize the #1 opportunity for Vancouver

Vegas

1. Nick Suzuki
2. Nikita Gusev
3. Cody Glass
4. Erik Brannstrom
5. Brendan Leipsic

Notes:

• I am kind of a huge Nick Suzuki fan so that is why he is tops on the list. Well that and he is their best prospect
• Nikita Gusev could step into the NHL right now and post 60 points, but likely will not post those points for Vegas with how they mismanaged Shipachyov
• Leipsic has not been given a legitimate/consistent NHL shot so I included him on this list, but he is definitely a skilled top nine forward

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Make sure to check out Joel Henderson’s (@dathockeydoe) prospect ramblings from yesterday on the worth of second round picks https://dobberprospects.com/prospect-ramblings-what-is-a-second-round-pick-worth-via-trade-feb-7-2018/

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Also if you missed check out Peter Harling’s (@Pharling) ramblings from Monday, since that was going to be my idea! https://dobberprospects.com/prospect-scouting-the-2018-olympics/

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