Get ready for the top three count down, it is coming at you!

3. Buffalo Sabres – 90.1

Harling – 86

Quinn – 94

Rines – 94

Itovitch – 90

High – 92

Nuno – 83

Gehrels – 92

The first thing you’ll notice on this list is that Owen Power is at the top and that is because he is under the 100-game mark. If he was out the Sabres may have fallen a couple spots with how close the final consensus rankings came to be. JJ Peterka and Quinn (no relation) will also graduate with him off of this list next season, but poor Buffalo they have the 13^th overall pick in a great draft and appear poised to push over the line for a playoff spot this coming season. All they really need is a goalie, and the question becomes what will they do? Run with a Levi and UPL tandem, or grab a veteran starter to help transition. Chalk me up as someone who thinks Hellebuyck and the Sabres are a perfect match.

Also, if you are an astute Sabres prospect follower you will notice Lukas Rousek is not on the list. Well sadly he just aged out as he is 24 (Personally, I think he was close enough to the cusp but not enough writers had him on their list to count in this exercise).

Up front Kulich and Rousek look like they can push for a role next season, and Savoie, Ostlund and Rosen are not far behind. Does anyone have any idea how Buffalo intends to give all these great players ice time? That seems to be the Sabres’ biggest issue heading in to the season.

Here is to Buffalo finally making the playoffs again!

Consensus Top-15 Prospects:

(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets – April 2023)

1. Owen Power
2. Jack Quinn
3. Devon Levi
4. J.J. Peterka
5. Jiri Kulich (54)
6. Matt Savoie (50)
7. Noah Ostlund (77)
8. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
9. Isak Rosen (113)
10. Ryan Johnson
11. Prokhtor Poltapov
12. Viktor Neuchev
13. Viljami Marjala
14. Oliver Nadeau
15. Ryan Davis

***************

2. Columbus Blue Jackets – 90.2

Harling – 95

Quinn – 95.5

Rines – 90

Itovitch – 93

High – 80

Nuno – 92

Gehrels – 86

It is crazy that the Blue Jackets are going to be adding the third overall selection and the 23^rd overall selection in the 2023 draft to this top 15 list. The team is jam packed with high-end talent, especially on the back end. The main question for keeper league GMs is “how does any powerplay time get spread out?” It almost feels as though CBJ could ice a powerplay of just defensemen with Werenski -Jiricek-Svozil-Mateychuk-Blankenberg/Bean and have it produce in the top 15 in the NHL.

The Blue Jackets desperately need some top-end centers. Hopefully, Sillinger rediscovers his confidence and that he has a lot of potential but right now the worry is that he was rushed. Patrik Laine becoming a center would be incredibly interesting here too.

This team is very deep on the wing, especially on defense, and has Tarasov to take over in net and the way Elvis is playing that looks a lot sooner than later. This team is likely still a couple of seasons away from the playoffs and will only continue to add great young talent in each draft. If they can get a top six centre in the off season, and their 3^rd overall pick (hello Leo Carlsson) can make the roster then this team can be deadly sooner than later.

The Blue Jackets were #1 in my ranking so feel free to follow me on twitter Blue Jacket fans (see below)

Consensus Top-15 Prospects:

(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets – April 2023)

1. David Jiricek (1 – D)
2. Kent Johnson
3. Kirill Marchenko (20)
4. Denton Mateychuk (20 – D)
5. Daniil Tarasov
6. Stanislav Svozil (42 – D)
7. Luca Del Bel Belluz (173)
8. Nick Blankenburg (34 – D)
9. Emil Bemstrom
10. Jordan Dumais (65)
11. Trey Fix-Wolanski (79)
12. Corson Ceulemans (27 – D)
13. James Malatesta
14. Tim Berni
15. Kirill Dolzhenkov

*************

1. Minnesota Wild – 91.1

Harling – 80

Quinn – 94

Rines – 95

Itovitch – 86

High – 92.5

Nuno – 99

Gehrels – 91

The #1 overall team is the Minnesota Wild and they sure need it with $12M of dead cap space these next two seasons. This team had a fantastic 2022 draft (like Buffalo) which attributed to the higher ranking, not to mention getting Faber from the Kings.

The Wild have a top prospect in every position and have depth on all sides. I actually did not rank them the highest here as Curtis Rines ranked them 1 point ahead of myself and Victor Nuno had them at a 99 (!!!).

The Wild start high with Wallstedt (though I admittedly do not think he can take the net from Gustavsson so easily) and then slowly decline. The bottom ranked players are also not quite at the lower level as other teams with many players still ranked as a 3 to 5 in the 14^th spot. This team is just crazy deep and will continue to stock the cupboards with three picks in the first two rounds in the 2023 draft.

Consensus Top-15 Prospects:

(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets – April 2023)

1. Jesper Wallstedt
2. Marco Rossi (1)
3. Calen Addison
4. Danila Yurov (120)
5. Liam Ohgren (164)
6. Brock Faber
7. Carson Lambos (26 – D)
8. Marat Khusnutdinov (117)
9. Adam Beckman (47)
10. Caedan Bankier
11. Hunter Haight
12. Jack Peart
13. Kyle Masters
14. Sam Walker (122)
15. David Spacek

***********

Pat Quinn

Follow my Twitter: @FHPQuinn

***********