Prospect Info: '24-'25 Prospects Thread: Generation Z

[Gurglesons]

Wheeler is very conservative with how he talks about everyone's prospects rather than saying they're all going to be elite. With the Canucks, D-man Elias Pettersson was their #3 ranked prospect and this is what he said about his upside:



He just uses very conservative language to describe prospect upsides rather than saying every single prospect will become elite like a lot of other prospect guys do.

That's probably an apt description of Elias Pettersson.

I dunno, our prospect pool reminds me a lot of the 17-18 era Penguins. Sprong, Gus, Jarry, and ZAR and a bunch of scratch offs.

 

[Empoleon8771]

That's probably an apt description of Elias Pettersson.

Yeah I'm not saying he's wrong, I'm just saying he takes a conservative approach with describing prospects.

The upside he gives the Penguins top prospects are:

McGroarty: top-9 forward that can play in any role
Brunicke: 2-way #3-#5 D
Koivunen: top-9 dual playmaker/scorer
Pickering: #5-#6 D
Blomqvist: 1B goalie

I don't think any of these are wrong but I do think they're more on the conservative side. I think you can reasonably argue that Pickering is already a #6 D, so him being only a #5/6 at his upside seems like a cautious estimate. That said, I think his upside is more like a complementary #4 type, so it's not like Wheeler is that far off.

 

[Gurglesons]

Yeah I'm not saying he's wrong, I'm just saying he takes a conservative approach with describing prospects.

The upside he gives the Penguins top prospects are:

McGroarty: top-9 forward that can play in any role
Brunicke: 2-way #3-#5 D
Koivunen: top-9 dual playmaker/scorer
Pickering: #5-#6 D
Blomqvist: 1B goalie

I don't think any of these are wrong but I do think they're more on the conservative side. I think you can reasonably argue that Pickering is already a #6 D, so him being only a #5/6 at his upside seems like a cautious estimate. That said, I think his upside is more like a complementary #4 type, so it's not like Wheeler is that far off.

Yeah, so decent group of prospets. But as he alludes to nothing that truly helps us moving forward.

You look at those first couple years before the Fleury draft and they had picked Whitney, Orpik, Armstrong.

I guess you could say we have the Armstrong and Orpik in Pickering and McG so you hope you can get a Whitney type with your upcoming 1st.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I was surprised to see Koivunen and Broz so far apart. I think they're a bit closer in terms of what caliber prospect they are. Not exactly huge impact guys but I think there's a solid chance they both carve out somewhat of an NHL career. Think Lucius is also quite a bit higher than I'd expected--kinda feels like a bit of a throwaway longshot at best.

I don't quite understand why Wheeler doesn't view Koivunen's skating as a concern but he does view Broz's skating as a concern. Granted I bet he has seen more of Koivunen than I have, but I noticed Koivunen's lack of first step a lot more than I noticed Broz having that issue.

He's insanely high on Koivunen's skill though, so maybe that's why Koivunen is ranked a lot higher.

Yeah, so decent group of prospets. But as he alludes to nothing that truly helps us moving forward.

You look at those first couple years before the Fleury draft and they had picked Whitney, Orpik, Armstrong.

I guess you could say we have the Armstrong and Orpik in Pickering and McG so you hope you can get a Whitney type with your upcoming 1st.

I don't think anyone really disagrees with this being the state of their prospect pool. Brunicke and McGroarty might reach an upside of being core pieces but the prospect pool as is will likely only give them some Malone/Orpik/Armstrong/ect caliber supporting pieces for the actual next core. Wheeler explicitly splits off McGroarty and Brunicke from the rest of the group as well, so it seems like he shares that opinion.

I keep saying that Koivunen's upside is a Jussi Jokinen clone, but Jussi Jokinen wasn't a core player for anyone.

 

[Pancakes]

Yeah, I disagree heartily with him on Broz…Broz’s pace of play is very similar to McG’s…a weakness for them both, but McG is #1 and he’s #14? I don’t see a great chasm between their NHL prospects except one was a first round pick and the other a second who had a poor college start…I think Wheeler has a predetermined dislike of Broz kinda like the complaints people had of Pronman and McG lol

McGroarty is 20 years old with those issues. Broz is 22. Huge difference in where they are at in their development.