Welcome to the Thursday ramblings aka an extra hockey thing to read after game seven last night. I am going to go over my top 50 picks that appeared to differ big time from the other writers and poke some fun at some writers (especially Joel, DP’s Flames writer – @dathockeydoe). Those picks being my (and others) top 50 NHL prospects for fantasy purposes that have zero NHL regular season games and goalies do not count.
You should have bought the guide unless you want to be a noob. Go here if you have not https://dobbersports.com/shop/
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Who did I have lower than the consensus and perhaps why:
Funny story, I do not have any player ranked the lower than other writers… if we count “Not Rated” as the lowest of the low. However, if we count NR as a “no vote” then I still did not have the lowest ranks, in fact I tied! So who did I have ranked low along with a minority of other writers:
- Rasmus Sandin (TOR) – I like Sandin and think he will become a good NHL player but I do not think his number will fly off the charts like other defensemen I ranked ahead of him. I along with two other writers had him in the late 40’s
- Kirby Dach (2019) – A 2019 first round pick that is not Jack Hughes (2019) or Kaapo Kakko (2019), or the next tier (Alex Turcotte, Bowen Byram, Cole Caufield), is ranked all over the place. It is mostly preference.
- NOTE: I do tend to favour already drafted players over raw current draft selections (i.e. 2019 draftees) as the drafted players tend to be more developed and you can project them slightly better. However I am not in favour of moving the draft age to 19 because if you are good at your job professionally as a hockey scout you should be able to draft good players, do not blame them being 18 for the player not panning out.
- Joel Farabee (PHI) – He is still a very good prospect but lots of people are forgetting about him as he appears more “two-way great player” than a “scoring top six winger” to me (FYI I am no professional scout haha).
- Dylan Cozens (2019) – I would be able to say I had him ranked the lowest but someone had to have him at 50….Joel! I will also ignore the other writer who had him as NR.
Who did I rank higher than everyone. Myself being the only writer to select a prospect is not included here:
- Kirill Kaprizov (MIN) – I ranked him fifth, and would have had him higher if not for Nikita Gusev (VGK) as of all the prospects to step on to the rink in October 2019, Gusev would be the best. KK, in my opinion, would be right up there with Hughes and Kakko but right now appears like he will be handcuffed because of the Wild’s new GM Paul Fenton (Seriously read the last interview with him from the Athletic). Also it must be noted that KK has appeared to stagnate a bit in the KHL, even though he did lead the league in goals, a lot of people expected him to also lead in points.
- Jeremy Bracco (TOR) – I wondered if I was the only one to see him dominate the AHL last season (I guess Hayden Soboleski did too as he had him high as well). The Leafs can seemingly trade William Nylander or Mitch Marner for a top flight defenseman with Bracco waiting in the wings and not lose that much offense up front.
Who did I have ranked that no other writers did:
- Philipp Kurashev (CHI) – Kurashev was a standout at the World Juniors and single-handedly made the Swiss a threat to play. He also had a good final season in the QMJHL posting 65 points in 59 games for the Quebec Remparts. He is one to watch in my books.
- Kirill Marchenko (CBJ) – The big Russian kid dominated the MHL but was moved around a lot last year. There is still a tremendous amount of skill here, it just needs to be developed and he needs to come over to North America of course.
I also had Sean Durzi (LA) and Trey Fix-Wolanski (CBJ) in my top 50 and those players were also selected by a separate writer each.
I did not rank Gabe Vilardi (LA) because I personally think he has missed far too much development time to become an impact top-six player. I still hope he pans out but I just do not see it, especially when skating was a concern before the back injuries.
Are there any players I forgot on my list like I did las year with Phillip Myers (PHI) and feel super silly about right now:
- I have to admit, not really. I do have to say that I probably should have looked harder at Jason Robertson (DAL) than I did. He was consensusly (new word I made up) ranked mid-range but at least one more writer did not list him either.
Now to poke fun at some writers… When you buy the guide you will see some people do not have Gusev, Turcotte (2019), Barrett Hayton (ARI), Grigori Denisenko (FLA), Adam Boqvist (CHI), Aleksi Heponiemi (FLA), and K’Andre Miller (NYR). What noobs!!! Now buy the guide and see which one I did not rank on this list to make fun of myself, although I did not have him on my top 50 anyway.
Thanks for reading. Follow my twitter here: @FHPQuinn for #GoodTakes