Prospect Info: - '24-'25 Prospects Thread: Generation Z | Page 58 | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League

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

Not sure I agree with Brunicke ahead of Pickering. I like him but I feel like he's getting a lot of hype based on a good training camp.
For what it's worth, Scott Wheeler is also high on Brunicke; Wheeler had Brunicke and McGroarty on their own tier as our two best prospects, with several others on a tier below.
 
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I don't think it's so egregious. At worst I'd say he's #2 right now. He had a great rookie season in the AHL and did great in his cup of coffee
absolutely did have a great AHL campaign.
As of right this second, absolutely.
I don't think he's the player with the highest ceiling, but right now, he's the best young player in the system.
Yea I guess that’s where I struggle to put him at 1 with, what I feel, a limited upside.
 
I don't think it's unreasonable to have Koivunen as the #1 prospect. Right now, no one in their prospect pool really has a higher upside than a complementary top-6 forward or a good middle pair defenseman. The upside for Koivunen is comparable to what it is for McGroarty, Pickering and Brunicke IMO, so I don't think it's that crazy to have Koivunen at #1 considering his AHL and NHL performance. All of these guys have good 2nd liner or #3D upside at most.

I probably have Koivunen at #2 rather than #1, I think McGroarty's all around play will make him an overall more useful player than Koivunen despite McGroarty likely producing less. But that's splitting hairs and I wouldn't really put up too much of an argument for Koivunen at #1. My top-5 right now is probably:

1. McGroarty
2. Koivunen
3. Brunicke
4. Pickering
5. Murashov

Blomqvist comes in at 6 and then you have a boatload of guys like Broz, Fernstrom, Pieniniemi, Howe, Ponomarev and such after that can be argued.
 
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The depth in the system is looking nice, just very lacking in high upside guys. Hopefully we can grab some of them in the 26/27 drafts

Yeah the depth is surprisingly good, I was trying to make my top-10 and then I realized that there are like 13 or 14 guys I want to put in the top-10.

After the top-4 (McGroarty, Koivunen, Brunicke and Pickering) and the 2 goalies (Murashov and Blomqvist), I can think of a ton of guys who you can argue deserve to be in the top-10. Broz, Fernstrom, Howe, Pieniniemi, Ponomarev, Ilyin, Hayes and Poulin all have a case to be in the top-10 as well, plus I think there are some other guys that you can argue can become top-10 prospects like Plante, Lucius and Swanson. If you consider Hallander a prospect still, he's up there too.

They need high end talent obviously, but the prospect pool is deeper than it has been in a long time. You probably have to go back to the 2013-2015 window to get a prospect pool that is as deep as it is today.
 
I don't think it's unreasonable to have Koivunen as the #1 prospect. Right now, no one in their prospect pool really has a higher upside than a complementary top-6 forward or a good middle pair defenseman. The upside for Koivunen is comparable to what it is for McGroarty, Pickering and Brunicke IMO, so I don't think it's that crazy to have Koivunen at #1 considering his AHL and NHL performance. All of these guys have good 2nd liner or #3D upside at most.

I probably have Koivunen at #2 rather than #1, I think McGroarty's all around play will make him an overall more useful player than Koivunen despite McGroarty likely producing less. But that's splitting hairs and I wouldn't really put up too much of an argument for Koivunen at #1. My top-5 right now is probably:

1. McGroarty
2. Koivunen
3. Brunicke
4. Pickering
5. Murashov

Blomqvist comes in at 6 and then you have a boatload of guys like Broz, Fernstrom, Pieniniemi, Howe, Ponomarev and such after that can be argued.
Didn't the article say part of the rankings were NHL readiness or am I misrembering?
 
Pretty fair to be down on the avg sized goalie without elite athleticism who just had a .885 SV in the NHL and a .914 in the AHL. He’s 23 and this was his second year in NA. Complete voodoo position too.

He’s still a top 10 prospect but I think it’s fair to bring him down a bit. Wasn’t an encouraging season and he looks like a backup, maybe 1B guy at this point.
 
It's a fair list. Hard to argue with it too much.

Worlds different than lists we've discussed in the past. Another thing to mention here is that, this is a pure prospects (plus Hallander) list. It's not counting Poulin, Ponomarov, Bemstrom, Puustinen, or even Jack St. Ivany - all guys that could be NHL players for us at any point. Might not have top notch, elite NHL skills and impact, but you can certainly ice any one of them with reasonable confidence.

That's quite the departure from the past where it was it one or two guys like Poulin, a NCAA FA, and then a bunch of 4/5/6th round players. Kinda fun to watch the prospect pool fill back up. Still excited to have guys like Ilyin and Fernstrom over in the Euro leagues marinating as well.
 
To be fair, Brunicke was dropped straight from Juniors into the end of the AHL season and playoffs without any chance to adjust to pro-life and pro-hockey. As an 18-year-old, no less. It's understandable that 12 games (2 of which were playoff games) at the most stressful time of year isn't going to provide a great sample for how he will ultimately adjust.
At that, he still managed 2 points in 2 playoff games, so there are signs that even in that short of a time, he was starting to make the adjustment.
 

Promising profile and stats.

I figured we'd start seeing a couple of these signings. Huntington, Johnstone, Imama, Laferriere and Koppanen are all UFAs and with the exception of Koppanen, I can't imagine there's much appetite to bring them back.
 
To be fair, Brunicke was dropped straight from Juniors into the end of the AHL season and playoffs without any chance to adjust to pro-life and pro-hockey. As an 18-year-old, no less. It's understandable that 12 games (2 of which were playoff games) at the most stressful time of year isn't going to provide a great sample for how he will ultimately adjust.
At that, he still managed 2 points in 2 playoff games, so there are signs that even in that short of a time, he was starting to make the adjustment.
Not a criticism at all. 19 at the AHL is pretty impressive. I just think people should be careful about projecting him into an NHL lineup.
 
Not a criticism at all. 19 at the AHL is pretty impressive. I just think people should be careful about projecting him into an NHL lineup.
I just think it's weird to rank a guy who has barely played in the AHL that high. And it's not like he's demolished junior hockey either. Feels like people are putting a lot of stock into training camp.
 

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