32. Pittsburgh Penguins – 51.8
Harling – 53
High – 49
Quinn – 51.5
Rines – 53
Gehrels – 47
Nuno – 60
Itovitch – 49
The rebuild era in Pittsburgh is coming.
This past summer the Penguins decided to resign aging core veterans Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, rather than trade them as rentals for draft picks and prospects at last years trade deadline. It is hard not to compete and go all in when you have a player the likes of Sidney Crosby, but the aging core lacks the support to be a true contender after years of trading away draft picks.
The Penguins have only made three selections in the first round of the draft in the last decade, and two of those selections are Samuel Poulin and Kasperi Kapanen, the later was just released on waivers.
The Penguins prospect pool is weak, the lack of draft picks and questionable development has left them depleted of NHL talent.
The Penguins average age of the roster is 30.48 years old with only three players under 25 in P-O Joseph, Ryan Poehling, and Drew O’Connor. There are no immediate impactful prospects in the pipeline that offer any help in the short term.
There are some dark days ahead in Pittsburgh.
Consensus Top 15 Prospects:
(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets)
- Owen Pickering, D
- Joel Blomqvist, G
- Filip Hallander, C
- Samuel Poulin, LW/RW (38)
- Valtteri Puustinen, LW/RW (79)
- Tristan Broz, C
- Filip Lindberg, G
- Isaac Belliveau, D
- Zam Plante, C
- Nathan Legare, RW
- Jordan Frasca, C
- Luke Devlin, C
- Sergey Murashov, G
- Lukas Svejkovsky, C/RW
- Jonathan Gruden, LW
31. Tampa Bay Lightning – 52.6
Harling – 53
High – 53
Quinn – 48.5
Rines – 56
Gehrels – 56
Nuno – 57
Itovitch – 45
The Tampa Bay Lightning have the weakest prospect pool in the NHL. But that’s OK since they also won back-to-back Stanley Cups.
The recent Brandon Hagel and Tanner Jeannot trades will have some long-term consequences on their prospect pool The Hagel trade cost the Bolts two first round picks, a fourth, and two NHL prospects in Boris Katchouk and Taylor Raddysh. The Jeannot trade cost their 2025 first round pick, 2024 second, and 2023 third and fourth. General Manager Julien BriseBois has depleted their draft picks for the next two drafts and the team will need to look to free agents from the CHL, NCAA and Europe to shore up their depth.
The Lightning have an impressive track record of doing exactly that, filling out their roster with later round draft picks and free agent signings of prospects. They will need to be creative to restock the prospect pool as they currently have three picks in the 2023 draft, a sixth (180) and two seventh’s (193,212).
Consensus Top 15 Prospects:
(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets)
- Isaac Howard, LW
- Hugo Alnefelt, G
- Dylan Duke, C
- Jack Thompson, D
- Niko Huuhtanen, RW
- Gage Goncalves, C
- Lucas Edmonds, LW/RW
- Jack Finley, C
- Maxim Groshev, LW/RW
- Felix Robert, C
- Eamon Powell, D
- Nick Perbix, D
- Max Crozier, D
- Gabriel Fortier, LW
- Nick Malik, G
30. New York Islanders – 52.9
Harling – 51
High – 46
Quinn – 59
Rines – 56
Gehrels – 50
Nuno – 59
Itovitch – 49
The Future on long island is bleak. Currently the Islanders are one of the older teams in the NHL with an average age of 29-years-old. Their cap situation is also questionable with several big-ticket contracts with term for players such as Anders Lee, J.G Pageau, Brock Nelson, Casey Cizikas, Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech and even Matthew Barzal who will begin his 8 X $9.150 Million contract next year.
The prospect pool offers little relief in the future as the Islanders have not drafted in the first round since 2019 when they selected Simon Holmstrom 23rd overall. Their draft record is littered with bust picks as well including Bode Wilde, Kieffer Bellows, Michael Dal Colle, Josh Ho-Sang, and Griffin Reinhardt.
Don’t count on the Islanders embracing a rebuild any time soon as the team just traded away their 2023 first round pick, their top prospect (Aatu Raty), and a young roster player for Bo Horvat and quickly signed the 28-year-old to another massive contract for eight years at $8.5 million.
Consensus Top 15 Prospects:
(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets)
- William Dufour, RW (78)
- Calle Odelius, D
- Samuel Bolduc, D (50)
- Simon Holmstrom, LW/RW (84)
- Isaiah George, D
- Ruslan Iskhakov, C (73)
- Quinn Finley, LW
- Matt Maggio, RW
- Jakub Skarek, G
- Alex Jefferies, LW
- Cameron Berg, C
- Robin Salo, D (28)
- Alexander Ljungkrantz, LW/RW
- Tristan Lennox, G
- Eetu Liukas, LW
29. Boston Bruins – 55.9
Harling – 59
High – 51
Quinn – 55.5
Rines – 60
Gehrels – 54
Nuno – 53
Itovitch – 59
The Boston Bruins have been a Stanley Cup contending team for a long time. The organization won the Cup in 2011 with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand as the remaining core players.
To maintain that competitive status the cost has been trading draft picks and prospects. The Bruins have had only two first round picks in the previous five drafts and as a result their pipeline is rather thin. The Bruins have tried to offset that by signing some notable college free agents, but the fact is the Bruins have one of the worst prospect pools in the NHL.
Consensus Top 15 Prospects:
(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets)
- Fabian Lysell, RW (57)
- Mason Lohrei, D (46)
- Matthew Poitras, C
- Brandon Bussi, G
- Frederic Brunet, D
- Brett Harrison, C
- Georgii Merkulov, C/W
- John Beecher, C
- Jack Ahcan, D
- Jakub Lauko, LW/RW
- Dans Locmelis, C
- Ty Gallagher, D
- Marc McLaughlin, C
- Riley Duran, C
- Trevor Kuntar, C/LW
28. Washington Capitals – 61.4
Harling – 56
High – 55
Quinn – 71
Rines – 70
Gehrels – 53
Nuno – 70
Itovitch – 55
Our second of three teams who earned a 65.9 ranking, the Washington Capitals are in no-mans land. They missed the playoffs this season, and are clearly attempting a retool with the acquisition of Rasmus Sandin, but their prospect pool leaves much to be desired. With a top-10 pick (8) in the 2023 draft, they could get their hands on an impact piece, as I personally feel that Michkov to Washington makes a little too much sense. However, they could go after a more NHL-ready pick in hopes of competing before the end of Alex Ovechkin’s career. Aaron Itovich
Consensus Top-15 Rankings:
- Connor McMichael
- Ivan Miroshnechinko
- Hendrix Lapierre
- Ryan Chesley
- Vincent Iorio
- Alexander Suzdalev
- Alex Alexeyev
- Mitch Gibson
- Aliaksei Protas
- Ludwig Persson
- Ryan Hofer
- Henry Rybinski
- Oskar Magnusson
- Brent Johnson
- Dru Krebs
27. Florida Panthers – 60.2
Harling – 66
High – 53
Quinn – 60.5
Rines – 62
Gehrels – 65
Nuno – 58
Itovitch – 66
The Panthers have a good young team with a core of under 27-year-old stars in Alex Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Spencer Knight. The average age on the roster is 27.92 which takes some pressure off to insert youth into the roster.
That is good news as the prospect pool is pretty thin. There is some promise at the top of the list, but it thins out quick and the Panthers have traded away their first-round pick for the next three years, and they traded away their first and second picks from the 2022 draft.
The Panthers will be lingering near the bottom of this list for years to come.
Consensus Top 15 Prospects:
(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets)
- Mackie Samoskevich, RW (98)
- Michael Benning, D
- Justin Sourdif, RW
- Grigori Denisenko, LW
- Evan Nause, D
- Aleksi Heponiemi, C/W
- Logan Hutsko, RW
- Kasper Puutio, D
- Ryan McAllister, C
- John Ludvig, D (48)
- Jack Devine, LW
- Mack Guzda, G
- Serron Noel, RW
- Sandis Vilmanis, LW
- Kirill Gerasimyuk, G