Note for readers: A brief error in counting disorganized the previous two pieces and some teams are out of order. Check them back out to see the fix.

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23. Vancouver Canucks – 66.3

Harling – 69

Quinn – 79.5

Rines – 70

Itovitch – 58

High – 54.5

Nuno – 75

Gehrels – 58

Vancouver used to have a top five prospect pool, then they all graduated and Vancouver traded away a lot of picks to compete. Unfortunately the competing did not go on for very long, and under an ownership group that wants playoffs or bust (along with signing a bunch of expensive contracts) the team bottomed out quick. After missing the playoffs since the underdog 2020 run the team did a good job of stocking the cupboard this season, unfortunately they also did the best they could to take themselves out of the Bedard sweepstakes as well.

The team does not boast any real potential top line/pairing prospects but it does have  a few with the potential to be strong second line/pairing types. Unfortunately, the team’s pool really bottoms out after Bloom, or even earlier depending how optimistic you are. Whoever the Canucks select in the 2023 draft should immediately become the top prospect, unless the team trades it to move out a bad contract.

I am surprised I have the highest ranking for Vancouver considering I do not think much of the team’s farm system other than they have a lot of mid-type prospects. I am pretty sure I boosted them higher because they did add three good pieces quite recently in Raty, Kravtsov and Hirose.

Consensus Top-15 Prospects:

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

1. Aatu Raty (42)
2. Jonathan Lekkerimaki (53)
3. Jack Rathbone (19 – D)
4. Danil Klimovich (149)
5. Aidan McDonough (171)
6. Vitali Kravtsov (55)
7. Elias Pettersson
8. Akito Hirose
9. Connor Lockhart
10. Arturs Silovs
11. Josh Bloom
12. Daimon Gardner
13. Jacob Truscott
14. Joni Jurmo
15. Kirill Kudryavtsev

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22. Edmonton Oilers – 68.3

Harling – 70

Quinn – 69

Rines – 70

Itovitch – 71

High – 63

Nuno – 71

Gehrels – 64

When a team has Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on it, there is no reason for them to have a robust prospect pool. While the Oilers haven’t seen the success they may have hoped in previous playoffs, they are now sitting with their deepest team in years. With the Western Conference wide open, this could be the year where they establish themselves as true contenders, having used their draft assets for impact pieces in Mattias Ekholm.

Their top prospect is their now-starting goaltender Stuart Skinner, and they have some other promising pieces in Dylan Holloway, Xavier Bourgault, and Philip Broberg. It will have to be seen, however, if these players are further used as trade chips as the Oilers enter their prime. Aaron Itovitch

Consensus Top-15 Prospects:

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

1. Stuart Skinner
2. Dylan Holloway (14)
3. Philip Broberg (7 – D)
4. Xavier Bourgault (24)
5. Matvey Petrov (133)
6. Raphael Lavoie (68)
7. Carter Savoie (116)
8. Tyler Tulio (128)
9. Oliver Rodrigue
10. Patrick Puistola (93)
11. Maxim Beryozkin
12. Reid Schaefer
13. Nikita Yevseyev
14. Ty Benson
15. Jake Chiasson

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21. Calgary Flames – 71.6

Harling – 71

Quinn – 69.5

Rines – 74

Itovitch – 72

High – 62

Nuno – 73

Gehrels – 80

To see the Flames ranked so low is kind of a testament to how the Flames’ prospect pool drops off. This is a pool that has one of the best goalie prospects in the world, three forwards who will either have a bottom of “third line skilled forward” to “top line forward”, a potential high-end scoring defenseman, a few potential bottom nine or #4-#6 defensemen, and then just a bunch of maybe hopefuls. Also, if Matthew Philips was qualified for this ranking the Flames would be higher.

The high-end and a lot of lower end, is really shown by the similar rankings for Calgary. Looking at how I rated Calgary and Vancouver it is interesting. I would probably select the top four Calgary players hands down in any pools and then a bunch of Vancouver prospects, while adding in Poirier early, before going back and forth on the teams for scraps.

The Flames can add two solid prospects in the 2023 draft with the team’s first and second round picks, unfortunately after a disastrous season the Flames only sit at pick #16. Thankfully this is a deep draft and that should give them a solid prospect to add. It is unknown what the new GM will do on or before the draft date.

Consensus Top-15 Prospects:

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

1. Dustin Wolf
2. Matt Coronato (11)
3. Jakob Pelletier (9)
4. Connor Zary (23)
5. Jeremie Poirier (16 – D)
6. Rory Kerins
7. Jack Beck
8. Topi Ronni
9. William Stromgren
10. Lucas Ciona
11. Cole Schwindt
12. Mathias Emilio Pettersen (56)
13. Parker Bell
14. Martin Pospisil
15. Yan Kuznetsov

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20. St. Louis Blues – 73.7

Harling – 72

Quinn – 79.5

Rines – 77

Itovitch – 72

High – 68.5

Nuno – 79

Gehrels – 68

The St. Louis system is pretty solid as they always keep a good amount of potential players in the system, but the prospects really drop off after Zherenko. Tucker may become a solid NHL player, as seen by him already getting NHL games, but his potential is nothing crazy. This team does not have another Kyrou or Thomas in the system, but they do have solid prospects that can score and check, which is something completely different and complimentary of players like the two mentioned previous.

A quick note here in case it was missed previous: Perunovich did not count here as he just aged out, players that were close but left off while other similar ones are on were in a poll voting scenario needing four out of seven writers to agree to have them on. Goalies are also cut off after 25, not at 23 like skaters.

Again, I have ranked a team at the top. Perhaps this is just me making up for being much harder on teams the last time I did this, but St. Louis does have a lot of above-average type prospects.

Consensus Top-15 Prospects:

(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets)

1. Jimmy Snuggerud (49)
2. Zach Bolduc (55)
3. Joel Hofer
4. Jake Neighbours (39)
5. Zach Dean (89)
6. Simon Robertsson
7. Nikita Alexandrov (81)
8. Michael Buchinger
9. Vadim Zherenko
10. Tyler Tucker
11. Aleksanteri Kaskimaki
12. Hunter Skinner
13. Matt Kessel
14. Dmitri Samorukov
15. Leo Loof

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19. Toronto Mable Leafs – 74.2

Harling – 77

Quinn – 76.5

Rines – 78

Itovitch – 68

High – 63

Nuno – 75

Gehrels – 82

Toronto has a lot of “likely” players, compared to most teams in the 10-32 range, but they also have no one that really pushes them up the rankings. They are an interesting group, in that so many prospects seem like they have the ability to make it. Most of the Leafs prospects ranged close together in the 7-4 range.

Toronto always seems to nab a player in round two that appears to be a future NHL player. Sadly, they do not have a second this year but I guess having a late first round pick from the Sandin trade makes up for it.

Amirov varies in these rankings thanks to his diagnosis and the unknown future of his hockey career, we all hope he recovers and is able to live a normal healthy and happy life!

Consensus Top-15 Prospects:

(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets)

1. Matthew Knies (41)
2. Nick Robertson (26)
3. Topi Niemela (32 – D)
4. Fraser Minten
5. Nicholas Moldenhauer
6. Ty Voit (140)
7. Rodion Amirov (69)
8. Nikita Grebyonkin
9. Roni Hirvonen (151)
10. Joseph Woll
11. Artur Akhtyamov
12. Ryan Tverberg
13. Veeti Miettinen
14. Alex Steeves (97)
15. Brandon Lisowsky

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18. Arizona Coyotes – 74.3

Harling – 73

Quinn – 83

Rines – 81

Itovitch – 71

High – 70

Nuno – 68

Gehrels – 74

Considering Arizona always seems to be out of the playoffs it is crazy that the team’s prospect system is not better. They do have some very good pieces in Cooley, Guenther, and Maccelli. I was critical of the Coyotes’ 2022 draft (still am) but they did add three additional pieces to the top 10 in our rankings, but it just seems like they could have added much more skilled players instead of less-skilled-but-more-size type of players.

The Coyotes have a plethora of picks over the next three drafts to stock the cupboards and hopefully find some additional top talent. As the uncertainty of the team’s future grows (by the way, I am in favor of them staying in Arizona so I hope the Tempe deal works!) the payroll will have to stay low, so expect a line up that encompasses a lot of young and cheap players over the next few seasons.

The varience in our rankings in interesting here, I think Curtis and I believe more in the middle talent of Arizona, while everyone else (except Victor who is not a fan on many prospects outside the top) feel as though the more middle ranked players are lower end.

Consensus Top-15 Prospects:

(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets)

1. Logan Cooley (5)
2. Dylan Guenther (4)
3. Mattias Maccelli
4. Connor Geekie (112)
5. Victor Soderstrom (11 – D)
6. Ivan Prosvetov
7. Jan Jenik (58)
8. Maveric Lamoureux
9. Josh Doan (153)
10. Aku Raty
11. Artyom Duda
12. Nathan Smith (134)
13. Julian Lutz
14. Mikko Matikka
15. Jack McBain

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17. Philadelphia Flyers – 74.5

Harling – 78

Quinn – 84.5

Rines – 78

Itovitch – 65

High – 57

Nuno – 89

Gehrels – 70

What a disaster of a season for Flyers fans. I am sorry to remind them of that. Everything went wrong this year for the team, especially with injuries, and it seemed like ex-GM Fletcher really got anything right. A new day is soon coming, and it seems a lot of the decision makers behind the scenes that pull the strings are also exiting the organization which should help the Flyers be a team more in the now than in the past.

The Flyers again boast a good number of high end defensive prospects, which will hopefully turn out better than the last time we all thought that. Development is weird. Foerster, Brink, and Gauthier are all great prospect, hopefully Torts lets them play.

Consensus Top-15 Prospects:

(Dobbers prospect rankings by position in brackets)

1. Cutter Gauthier (62)
2. Bobby Brink (18)
3. Emil Andrae (39 – D)
4. Tyson Foerster (16)
5. Samuel Ersson
6. Yegor Zamula (31 – D)
7. Cam York
8. Elliot Desnoyers (141)
9. Ronnie Attard (40 – D)
10. Zayde Wisdom (183)
11. Davin Kaplan
12. Alexis Gendron
13. Ethan Samson
14. Samu Tuomaala
15. Ollie Lyksell (142)

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Pat Quinn

Follow my Twitter: @FHPQuinn

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