Prospect Info: 2024 HFAvs Prospect Ranking Polls - Main Thread

[McMetal]

It's time to kick off the summer prospect polls! Same format as usual this year, the cutoff to qualify as a prospect is less than 65 NHL games played and has not yet turned 24. The pool has expanded to 28 eligible players this year, so we're going to do a top 25. Polls go up every two days, vote for your favorite in the polls and don't forget to vote for who to add next with a comment. I tally them up every time. We'll start with an initial five, then add one per round until about the 6th or 7th poll, when we'll add two prospects per round until we hit 10 and then go back to one per round until we run out.

This table will be updated with the winner each round (so I don't have to make a brand new table every round).

Position	Player	Draft	2024 Rank	2023 Rank	Change
C	Calum Ritchie	2023 #27	1 (98.6%)	1	0
D	Mikhail Gulyayev	2023 #31	2 (76.1%)	2	0
D	Sean Behrens	2021 #61	3 (60.9%)	3	0
G	Ilya Nabokov	2024 #38	4 (95.8%)	-	-
C	Jean-Luc Foudy	2020 #75	5 (74.0%)	4	-1
RW	Oskar Olausson	2021 #28	6 (51.3%)	6	0
C	Ivan Ivan	Undrafted	7 (36.1%)	-	-
LW	William Zellers	2024 #76	8 (50.0%)	-	-
C	Maxmilian Curran	2024 #161	9 (54.3%)	-	-
D	Tory Pitner	2024 #185	10 (37.0%)	-	-
C	Jake Fisher	2024 #121	11 (25.0%)	-	-
C	Christian Humphreys	2024 #215	12 (41.2%)	-	-
LW	Maros Jedlicka	2023 #219	13 (25.0%)	15	+2
G	Ivan Yunin	2024 #137	14 (33.3%)	-	-
C	Zakhar Bardakov	2021 #203 (TR)	15 (42.9%)	-	-
G	Louka Cloutier	2024 #132	16 (43.5%)	-	-
G	Kevin Mandolese	2018 #157 (TR)	17 (64.7%)	-	-
C	Ondrej Pavel	Undrafted	18 (41.7%)	8	-10
D	Chris Romaine	2022 #193	19 (28.6%)	20	+1
C	Nikita Prischepov	2024 #217	20 (26.3%)	-	-

Honorable Mentions:

Position	Player	Draft	2024 Rank	2023 Rank	Change
LW	Taylor Makar	2021 #220	HM 1	18	-3
G	Trent Miner	2019 #202	HM 2	HM 2	0
D	Saige Weinstein	Undrafted	HM 3	-	-
C	Colby Ambrosio	2020 #118	HM 4	10	-14
C	Matt Stienburg	2019 #63	HM 5	12	-13
LW	Chase Bradley	2020 #203 (FA)	HM 6	-	-
D	Nikita Ishimnikov	2023 #155	HM 7	17	-10
C	Andrei Buyalski	2021 #92	HM 8	11	-17

For reference, here is the full list of eligible players:

Colby Ambrosio
Zakhar Bardakov
Sean Behrens
Chase Bradley
Andrei Buyalsky
Louka Cloutier
Maxmilian Curran
Jake Fisher
Jean-Luc Foudy
Christian Humphreys
Nikita Ishimnikov
Ivan Ivan
Maros Jedlicka
Mikhail Gulyayev
Taylor Makar
Kevin Mandolese
Trent Miner
Ilya Nabokov
Oskar Olausson
Ondrej Pavel
Tory Pitner
Nikita Prishchepov
Calum Ritchie
Christopher Romaine
Matthew Stienburg
Saige Weinstein
Ivan Yunin
William Zellers

Removed: Justus Annunen (Aged Out), Alex Beaucage (Not Qualified), Gianni Fairbrother (Not Qualified), Jeremy Hanzel (Traded), Nikolai Kovalenko (Aged Out), Jason Polin (Aged Out), Sampo Ranta (Aged Out), Shamil Shmakov (Aged Out)

Added: Zakhar Bardakov (Trade), Chase Bradley (Free Agent), Louka Cloutier (Draft), Maxmilian Curran (Draft), Jake Fisher (Draft), Christian Humphreys (Draft), Ivan Ivan (UDFA), Kevin Mandolese (Trade), Ilya Nabokov (Draft), Tory Pitner (Draft), Nikita Prishchepov (Draft), Saige Weinstein (UDFA), Ivan Yunin (Draft), William Zellers (Draft)

2023 Poll Results

2022 Poll Results

Click to read more...

 

[McMetal]

Mods, you can pin this thread if you want (and unpin last year's thread, I spent several minutes searching for it until I realized it was still at the top).

 

[Deadsy]

I believe Gianni Fairbrother was not qualified and is a free agent now.

Source: Avalanche signs forward Jason Polin to one-year contract

 

[McMetal]

I believe Gianni Fairbrother was not qualified and is a free agent now.

Source: Avalanche signs forward Jason Polin to one-year contract

According to CapFriendly, he was qualified. That was the source I was using. Could be wrong though.

 

[Deadsy]

I think it's an error.

NHL also has him as a free agent: NHL Free Agent Tracker | NHL.com
TSN says he was not qualitied: NHL releases official free agent list | TSN

 

[Bonzai12]

Hejduk’s kid #1 - nepotism ftw

 

[McMetal]

I think it's an error.

NHL also has him as a free agent: NHL Free Agent Tracker | NHL.com
TSN says he was not qualitied: NHL releases official free agent list | TSN

Ok, that's good enough for me. I wasn't sure about him, I always try to do my homework on those details, but usually the hive mind here picks up anything I miss.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Fairbrother was 100% not qualified. CF wasn’t bothering with details and double checks at the end there. They just had him listed as one of those 10.2 RFAs because he didn’t accrue enough time for an offer sheet.

I pinned this thread (obviously), and unpinned the #1 thread.

 

[McMetal]

Sorry I haven't posted the next poll thread yet. Things blew up this week and I haven't had any time.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Sorry I haven't posted the next poll thread yet. Things blew up this week and I haven't had any time.

We'll beat you with a wet noodle later. In the meantime, get busy!

J/K...hope all is well buddy.

 

[McMetal]

We'll beat you with a wet noodle later. In the meantime, get busy!

J/K...hope all is well buddy.

Just busy AF. Work, doctor's appointments, mom's birthday, there's just been something extra to do every single day this week. Usually, I have no life at all so it's easy to keep a schedule for the polls, these last couple weeks have just been so packed. Next week is already filling up, too...

 

[Hasbro]

Hejduk’s kid #1 - nepotism ftw

Working ok with Kovalenko.

 

[McMetal]

I'm going to wrap up the prospect polls at 20. I'm not sure there's much point in ranking the bottom 8 in our very shallow pool. Thanks to all who participated!

Some obersvations I found interesting:

• The top three stays intact from the previous year. Probably partly due to the lack of a shiny new first round pick, but also, encouragingly, it also means that none of our top three took a big dive, which is unusual for Avs prospects. Pretty much the whole top six is identical, with one new addition and one faller.
• We ended up with 12 newcomers in the top 20. I can't remember a time when we had that many players coming in over one summer. I think that's probably less of a testament to the quality of the new additions though, and more a result of a lot of precipitous drops from depth darlings from 2023.
• Speaking of fallers... the prospects who did fall from last year fell HARD. Five players dropped double digits when their shine finally wore all the way off as they hit a brick wall in their development. Only two players moved up from 2023, which is also weird, especially because neither of them did anything noteworthy last season.
• Defensive depth after Gulyayev and Behrens is GRIM. I know our D corps is probably pretty well set for the foreseeable future, but still, it's not pretty to look at.
• Depth in general after the top 5? Also looks nasty. There are a handful of guys who have a chance from 6-20 (and my personal rankings would look VERY different as far as who has potential) but it's more likely than not that zero names past 5 (or maybe even 4) ever stick in the NHL.
• And that's probably why the results were all over the place. Usually you can kind of see tiers form in the rankings where consensus breaks apart and then gathers around the last player in the tier. This year only one player past 9th managed to gain more than 50% support in a poll, which means nobody is agreeing on anything.

Was this exercise a waste of time? Maybe, but in the immortal words of Gwen DeMarco...

 

[TatteredTornNFrayed]

Nice summary. I think many of us surely agree with the points you make in your observations. Thanks for doing this again, as it does offer a small bit of interest and entertainment during the offseason, and is always interesting to compare and look back how our collective views shift.

The feature tabulating last year and ranking movement is a nice addition. Any chance you can add links to the last few season main threads in the top post? I see this in some other similar threads, and it can be handy to aid looking a bit farther back.

 

[McMetal]

Nice summary. I think many of us surely agree with the points you make in your observations. Thanks for doing this again, as it does offer a small bit of interest and entertainment during the offseason, and is always interesting to compare and look back how our collective views shift.

The feature tabulating last year and ranking movement is a nice addition. Any chance you can add links to the last few season main threads in the top post? I see this in some other similar threads, and it can be handy to aid looking a bit farther back.

They're linked at the bottom of the top post now.

 

[henchman21]

Pain.