Prospect Info: Bruins Prospects XXII

[Dr Quincy]

He has Beecher three - which is lazy and uninformed. No one has Beecher as a top three prospect for the Bruins. I still maintain he will play in the NHL for a good long while, albeit in a 4th line/3rd line grinder role. Many disagree. Regardless, having him above Merkulov, Poitras, et al is an indicator that said analyst has no idea what he's doing. Fans of pretty much every other team, along with every single "expert" I know, agree.

Lazy and uninformed??

Your takes are super inconsistent.

A year ago you refused to put any prospect taken after Beecher who hadn't established themselves as an NHL player above him... even guys that played like 20 games or so. Even a month ago you refused to say that a player who was in the Calder race was better than Beecher.

But now you are upset that someone HASN'T put 2 prospects who haven't played a single game in the NHL ahead of him.

It seems like your criteria for ranking changes according to very complex math: Is it a Bruins prospect or not?

There are lots of guys who do this. You say NOBODY, then mention that Wheeler does it too. Again, the argument isn't rating the Bruins last (though I disagree by 5-6 slots or so). It's a body of work from Pronman over many years that shows some very distinct biases. He all but admitted that he doesn't value players who could become solid bottom six players. He rarely updates his prior knowledge (he still rates Lohrei as a poor skater despite a huge body of evidence to the contrary as an example), like when he had McAvoy the 14th best defenseman in his draft class and barely put him in their under 23 list a couple years later. Putting Poitras in the "Has a chance to play games" category when you look at who else he has in the "Projected to play in the NHL" category is laughable. Having Brisson #10 for Vegas is ludicrous. Etc.

I'm not going to give the guy credit for doing a job. I'll give a guy credit when they do their job well.

OK, name the B's top 3 prospects.

Then name the 3 prospects for the 5 or 6 other teams that you have behind them.

 

[Saxon Eric]

I am total agreement with Pronman (which is rare). Bruins prospect pool is the worst in the NHL and that's the point. You can argue who is 1-10 but the pure fact is they lack high end talent in the prospect pool compared to every other organization.

Bottom 1/3 of the league, absolutely
Worst,nope

Wish @Saxon Eric could post the convo from a trusted source we chatted about yesterday, even without the name included

Negative

 

[MarchysNoseKnows]

Negative

Yeah, I know...

 

[rocketdan9]

I am total agreement with Pronman (which is rare). Bruins prospect pool is the worst in the NHL and that's the point. You can argue who is 1-10 but the pure fact is they lack high end talent in the prospect pool compared to every other organization.

I disagree ...

-Bussi while a few years older.... was one of the best ahl goalies last season (1st year)

-Poitras was 2nd in the OHL with 79 assists

-Lohrei is a 6'4 or 6'5 D with high level offensive instincts

-Merkulov - AHL all rookie team

 

[Kegs]

Bottom 1/3 of the league, absolutely
Worst,nope


Negative

Hard to imagine any writer can keep up with every teams prospects. It’s probably a lot of Google and stat watching to make these lists. It makes perfect sense to me. If a team only has a few draft picks every year hockey writers can easily put them at the bottom of the league based on sheer number of high end prospects in the system. We all know how prospects work out though…. Most don’t really pan out. We shouldn’t even concern ourselves with these lists.

The best teams in the league have the least promising prospect pools? Strange.

 

[dugg133]

Lots of Lysell stuff on the bruins twitter today since they're following him for the bear tracks thing




Maybe it's just my imagination but it seems like he's starting to add some muscle to his frame, which I've read is gonna be an important step to him breaking into the NHL in the near future. So that's good.

 

[Kegs]

Lots of Lysell stuff on the bruins twitter today since they're following him for the bear tracks thing




Maybe it's just my imagination but it seems like he's starting to add some muscle to his frame, which I've read is gonna be an important step to him breaking into the NHL in the near future. So that's good.

Man that kid can skate. I think he is an nhl player at the end of the day. But who knows. I thought spooner had hands vision and separation speed. What do I know ?

 

[The Andrew Peeke Fan]

Man that kid can skate. I think he is an nhl player at the end of the day. But who knows. I thought spooner had hands vision and separation speed. What do I know ?

Sounds lame, and I definitely overrate him cause he's a Bruin, but I felt like the main deficiency he had last year was getting frustrated and tailing off when something in transition, or whatever else, didn't go right for him. Lot of boneheaded stick infractions. I agree with you, though, I think he turns out to be a 2nd line quality guy on a decent team.

I didn't watch every game, just the home games, but Merkulov was way more impressive to me. Hope he has a good camp and forces the hand a bit, like everyone else.

 

[Kegs]

Sounds lame, and I definitely overrate him cause he's a Bruin, but I felt like the main deficiency he had last year was getting frustrated and tailing off when something in transition, or whatever else, didn't go right for him. Lot of boneheaded stick infractions. I agree with you, though, I think he turns out to be a 2nd line quality guy on a decent team.

I didn't watch every game, just the home games, but Merkulov was way more impressive to me. Hope he has a good camp and forces the hand a bit, like everyone else.

Merkulov must be ready for the nhl. He is probably getting a look. I feel like everyone of you guys who watch him are saying he is good. We will see how he looks this season im sure. He could make the team. But he could also be next up from providence which essentially turns into a couple of looks anyways. Exciting prospect. Would be nice to find some good players like they got him. It certainly is one way to shore up the prospect pool when you don’t have draft picks.

 

[DKH]

Imagine being outraged that a random analyst didn't rank your low end prospects high enough? What a weird world we live in these days...

He’s not a random analyst he’s the Athletic feature prospect writer

I love that he applied for the baseball job and joined HF among the many avenues to get up to speed

I should cut him slack since I was his favorite poster here back in the early 2000’s

 

[DKH]

Terrible take

Why would you hurt me like this

 

[OldScool]

Bottom 1/3 of the league, absolutely
Worst,nope


Negative

What team has worse prospect pool than the Bruins?

 

[Saxon Eric]

What team has worse prospect pool than the Bruins?

Vancouver
Tampa
Pittsburgh
Islanders
I have Colorado slightly ahead and that's because I really like 1 of their guys but I could make the argument that we're on par with them
I moved Washington ahead on the strength of this combined with last year's draft

 

[Dr Quincy]

Vancouver
Tampa
Pittsburgh
Islanders
I have Colorado slightly ahead and that's because I really like 1 of their guys but I could make the argument that we're on par with them
I moved Washington ahead on the strength of this combined with last year's draft

Disagree on Vancouver and PITT
Agree on NYI 100%... worst in the league
Tampa... toss up

EDIT: Adding some reasons
VAN- Willander > > Lohrei, Podkolzin, Klimovich, Raty, Lekkerimakki > Lysell, Merkulov, Poitras, Beecher but would be an interesting discussion

PITT- Tough one Yager> any B's F, Pickering >any B's D,

After that Broz vs. Poitras... arguable either way. B's have more depth but I'd rather have a 1/2 C and a better D than depth. But I'm sure others will see it differently.

Agree about COL and NYI.

 

[rocketdan9]

What team has worse prospect pool than the Bruins?

Leafs, Avs, VGK

 

[Saxon Eric]

Disagree on Vancouver and PITT
Agree on NYI 100%... worst in the league
Tampa... toss up

EDIT: Adding some reasons
VAN- Willander > > Lohrei, Podkolzin, Klimovich, Raty, Lekkerimakki > Lysell, Merkulov, Poitras, Beecher but would be an interesting discussion

PITT- Tough one Yager> any B's F, Pickering >any B's D,

After that Broz vs. Poitras... arguable either way. B's have more depth but I'd rather have a 1/2 C and a better D than depth. But I'm sure others will see it differently.

Agree about COL and NYI.

Pitt- I'll yield Yager but we have much better organizational depth
Pickering? Let's just say I didn't enjoy watching him play, granted his team was ass ,I guess we'll see but again our depth is better

Broz v Poitras is pretty equal

 

[Dr Quincy]

Looking over TB again... yeah they are worse than BOS too.

NY and TB are the 2 worst. Then you have about 5 or 6 teams that you can throw in a blender.

 

[LSCII]

Pitt- I'll yield Yager but we have much better organizational depth
Pickering? Let's just say I didn't enjoy watching him play, granted his team was ass ,I guess we'll see but again our depth is better

Broz v Poitras is pretty equal

Regardless of whether you think they're the third worst or fourth worst or fifth worsts, it's still a damning indictment on the lack of actual viable prospects in their pipeline, no? Like splitting hairs over whose are the rock bottom is burying the lead, IMO. The Bruins pool flat out is garbage. Sweeney's record of drafting is flat out garbage. These are problems that need to be addressed ASAP if this team wants to be competitive in the next 5 seasons because what they're doing isn't working.

 

[Saxon Eric]

Regardless of whether you think they're the third worst or fourth worst or fifth worsts, it's still a damning indictment on the lack of actual viable prospects in their pipeline, no? Like splitting hairs over whose are the rock bottom is burying the lead, IMO. The Bruins pool flat out is garbage. Sweeney's record of drafting is flat out garbage. These are problems that need to be addressed ASAP if this team wants to be competitive in the next 5 seasons because what they're doing isn't working.

I don't see it that way and no matter what I write I know there's zero chance of changing your mind so we are at a standstill

 

[bruinsfan1968]

Lol, it's very funny that there is disappointment about the quality of the Bruins prospect pool. When the majority of you fine folks here, participate in the yearly tdl thread in which there are certainly slot of people want this team to go for it, every season. This includes trading draft picks, most importantly are in the first 3 rounds.
You can't have it both ways, there is always some sacrifices, it's going for it or keeping the picks.
They went with trading the picks, so everyone must live with it, and move on!.

 

[Beesfan]

Regardless of whether you think they're the third worst or fourth worst or fifth worsts, it's still a damning indictment on the lack of actual viable prospects in their pipeline, no? Like splitting hairs over whose are the rock bottom is burying the lead, IMO. The Bruins pool flat out is garbage. Sweeney's record of drafting is flat out garbage. These are problems that need to be addressed ASAP if this team wants to be competitive in the next 5 seasons because what they're doing isn't working.

Ranking a team's prospect pool is grossly overrated. In the vast majority of cases, the players driving those high rankings turn out to be completely ordinary players or nothing at all (e.g. Cody Glass, Jesse Puljujarvi, Logan Brown, etc. - the list goes on forever). Drafting is like the modern game of baseball, the homerun matters more than anything.

How highly ranked would a prospect pool led by Bergeron, Krejci, Lucic, Marchand and Chara be against the other 31 teams today? Probably bottom 5 too. You just don't know about a player until they hit the NHL.

 

[DominicT]

What surprises me the most is this thread gets very little action throughout the year until Cory Pronman writes an article then it's the busiest thread here.

 

[Kegs]

Regardless of whether you think they're the third worst or fourth worst or fifth worsts, it's still a damning indictment on the lack of actual viable prospects in their pipeline, no? Like splitting hairs over whose are the rock bottom is burying the lead, IMO. The Bruins pool flat out is garbage. Sweeney's record of drafting is flat out garbage. These are problems that need to be addressed ASAP if this team wants to be competitive in the next 5 seasons because what they're doing isn't working.

Sweeney basically drafts an nhl player every year I’m pretty sure. And most years he doesn’t have a lot of picks. I get it you’re mad at 2015. But it’s been 8 years. Can we move on and get over it? They still got a lot of their core out of that draft and Sweeney has iced a competitive team every year. I just don’t understand why you are so unhappy with the drafting.

 

[Raleighfern]

What surprises me the most is this thread gets very little action throughout the year until Cory Pronman writes an article then it's the busiest thread her

 

[Kegs]

What surprises me the most is this thread gets very little action throughout the year until Cory Pronman writes an article then it's the busiest thread here.

We like to complain around these parts.